Two Artists – Velázquez-Picasso: Las Meninas is written by two scholars – Dr Marjorie Trusted, senior curator of Victoria & Albert Museum specialising in sculpture and Spanish art and Dr Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, artist and lecturer at the University of Malta (History of Art Department) specialising in modern and contemporary art.
The book is divided into three inter-related papers. The first is written by Dr Trusted. The second paper is by Dr Schembri Bonaci. The third paper is co-written by the two scholars as they bring together the points discussed and together build on their own arguments.
The main objective of the book is to compare the works and world view of two artists – Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez and Pablo Ruiz Picasso – in relation to one work – Las Meninas. Velázquez’s enigmatic Las Meninas has been the subject of deep and controversial debate since its inception. Picasso’s systematic subversion of the essence of this work forms an integral part of this study.
Dr Schembri Bonaci says that writing this book involved the co-operation of scholars coming from different international institutions – Dr Schembri Bonaci from the Department of History of Art (University of Malta), Dr Trusted from the Victoria Albert Museum, London and Antonio Sparzani from the Università degli Studi di Milano. The preface is written by Prof. Mario Buhagiar, head of the Department of History of Art, University of Malta. This gives Two Artists - Velázquez-Picasso: Las Meninas a multi cultural character.
This book explores different aspects of the links between Velázquez and Picasso, using the baroque master’s great masterpiece, Las Meninas, and Picassos’ interpretations of it, as the fulcrum of the argument. Dr Trusted examines “the relationship between the two great Spanish artists” in the light of Picasso’s “interaction with, and treatment of, Las Meninas”, although the two artists lived 300 years apart. She discusses how Picasso was inspired to create 58 paintings of Velázquez’s Las Meninas. She also analyses “the concept of Spanishness, national identity, as seen through the art of both Velázquez and Picasso”. Moreover, Dr Trusted attempts to shed light on “Picasso’s 20th century preoccupation with his baroque predecessor”.
Dr Schembri Bonaci analyses Picasso’s rebellion against Velázquez who to him was the symbol of regal Spanishness. The author examines various aspects related to the various contradictory elements of Art. He discusses the relationship Picasso created with El Greco and Velázquez and the artistic battle Picasso waged to “butcher” the academic world. Dr Schembri Bonaci highlights the tantalising world of Picasso’s Las Meninas as Picasso confronts the enigmatic Velázquez’s Las Meninas. He also gives a rather innovative Hegelian-Panofsky approach to Picasso’s Las Meninas variations including an in-depth analysis of the relationship between pictorial and real space in the works concerned. Dr Schembri Bonaci provokes the debate by discussing the “African” element in Picasso’s struggle against the Spanish Crown painter, Velázquez. He also tackles the question of insularity in Art and brings in the Malta situation within the parameters of this debate.
“My essay” says Dr Schembri Bonaci “concentrates on Picasso’s Las Meninas. It has the objective to analyse this relationship with Velázquez so as to give a broader way of how one should look at the relationship between modern art and art of previous eras; between modern art and classical art, between modern art and primitive art.”
The third paper in the book is an integrated essay combining the arguments of both authors. This, in fact, may be interpreted as a work-in-progress of two minds working together on the same theme.
“The third essay was an amalgam of the first two, which were integrated and edited, and indeed spliced together in order to re-create a combined piece,” says Dr Trusted. “We had originally planned simply to publish this combined piece alone, but thought it would be better to include the two independent essays as preludes to the third. I think this was the right decision. Most importantly, our different art historical approaches coalesced and complemented each other. In addition, the discipline of writing about a 17th-century artist working in Spain (Velázquez) and a 20th-century one active in France (Picasso) involved distinct ways of working and thinking about these two different yet overlapping cultures and working practices.”
“The third paper was the most difficult, yet the most interesting in this process of academic collaboration,” says Dr Schembri Bonaci. “The difference between Continental and British thought is very well known. The former underlining purely a theoretical-philosophical approach while the latter giving predominance to empirical and pragmatic data. Thus, for me, this work, besides its artistic and academic merits was also intriguing because of this radical difference of academic methodology and research orientation. One can, of course, imagine the long heated debates on every question analysed. However, it was exciting when we both reached a fascinating rich way of how to combine both world views.
Many were and still are the positive aspects of putting our ideas together. Dr Trusted’s erudite knowledge and impeccable academic “British” discipline helped a lot in the clarification of my artistic-philosophical ideas. Her insistent “interrogations” on all the ideas put forward sharpened my positions. On the other hand, my theoretical ideas may have, I hope, jolted Dr Trusted’s previous thoughts on the subject. Both these elements did nothing but enrich our mutual understanding of the theme under discussion. For two whole years we studied Velázquez and Picasso together. We participated in various talks, public discussions and visited all possible exhibitions related to the subject concerned.”
Although this book is aimed for university students, it is also for people who love art and want to learn about a deeper novel insight of Velázquez’s and Picasso’s Meninas. This book looks at the two artists and their paintings from various angles and brings forward different points of view. It is packed with information not only about Velázquez, Picasso and Las Meninas, but also about other artists. Two Artists – Velázquez-Picasso: Las Meninas is interesting, informative and enjoyable while also leaning on the academic and esoteric.