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Rating: 
Summary: Ouch! There's That "G" Word Again...
Review: As other reviewers have mentioned, this book has many wonderful reproductions, including a lot of "extreme close-ups" (if you'll allow me to lift an expression from the movie "Wayne's World"!). The close-ups are great...you can see details of how Velazquez achieved certain effects- such as concentrated spots of pigment to represent the glitter of jewelery, or applying a transparent black "wash" over the white pages in a "book", to give the impression of writing in a book. Additionally, Professor Brown provides a nice biographical sketch of Velazquez in the first 20 pages of the book, and he writes very well indeed. The commentary that accompanies the plates contains a lot of fascinating historical information- we learn a lot about the "court" of Philip IV, the roles of dwarves and jesters, etc. The author goes into the symbolism included in the paintings- for example, the importance of showing the king in control of a horse (which implies he is a good ruler as well as a good horseman). One of the most fascinating plates is the portrait of Mariana of Austria, who was Philip's second wife. Professor Brown explains that Philip's first wife, and his only son, had died and the king needed to remarry and produce a male heir. Unfortunately, Mariana was Philip's niece. As you might expect, the only surviving male heir of their marriage, Charles II, proved incapable of ruling and also of having any children of his own. With his death, the Habsburg dynasty of Spain came to an end. But the physical act of painting the picture also ties into this sad story. Velazquez was a very "economical" painter (some might say lazy). He wasn't very productive, and he also didn't like to waste canvasses that he had worked on! In this case, he had started a canvas of Philip IV. The physical resemblance between Philip and his niece was so great that the artist was able to paint Mariana's face over Philip's. In close-up, Professor Brown even shows how you can see where Velazquez covered up the area on the upper lip which had contained the king's mustache! Many of the plates have similar interesting bits of information contained in the accompanying text. I felt that the book only deserved 4 stars rather than 5 for two reasons- after awhile, some of the technical information becomes boring for the lay reader....too many descriptions of the various pigments used in the "ground" layer of each painting and of the sizes of the additional strips of canvas added to the paintings, for example. The second reason is that Professor Brown is a little too free with the word "genius". He claims that Velazquez was capable of doing things that other major artists weren't able to accomplish. I'm not qualified to say whether or not Velazquez was a genius but, in general, I think the word is overused. The author fails to explain WHY Velazquez was a genius, and what exactly he could do that other important artists couldn't. Still, this is a fine book, with a very nice mixture of beautiful reproductions and lively, informative text.
Rating: 
Summary: important, interesting topic - mediocre results
Review: I think the first reviewer has mentioned the important points, but I would highlight some of the conclusions. The purpose of this book is to apply the tools of art history and conservation to the practical question of how Velasquez painted his masterpieces. This is a topic of primary interest to practicing painters, and it is an approach that may prove fruitful in the future, but I think is only moderately successful here. The important contribution of this book is the large number of close up views of a small number of paintings. The image quality is good, though not of the highest quality. The text and analysis does address the practical question of how the paintings were constructed, but only provides rather shallow results. The ground used, the pigment selection, additions to the canvas - these topics are well covered. But the more involved question of how the paint layers were developed was not really explained. In the end there is little information for someone seeking to understand precisely how these paintings were made. As the first reviewer mentioned, the art historical background has a sort of "rah rah" quality. For example, referring to The Fable of Arachne: "The expressive potential of color posited in the works of Titian is here [by Velasquez] exploited in ways that this venerated old master could never have conceived." How many stars should you give to the only book on this very important topic? If you are a painter you have to buy it. I give it three stars, and will keep the book for the illustrations.
Rating: 
Summary: a marvelous insight into the mind of a genius
Review: jonathan brown's book constitutes a marvelous addition to the existing bibliography on the undisputed "best master painter of all time". after pouring over its pages and countless illustrations i feel so much closer to the supreme genius only velazquez possessed. a truly marvelous book.
Rating:
Summary: Velazquez: the technique of Genius
Review: Please, I would most grateful if you send me information about this publication in Spanish. I am very interested in buying it but I am not still fluent in English. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Ingenius rendering of face and body expressions!
Review: The book consists in essence of two parts: The first 20 pages cover briefly Velazquez's life, career, techniques, and materials. The rest of the book comments on the artist's works. Concisely, the author discusses the artist's choice on (painting) supports, pigments and colors, and composition and execution, as a prelude for in-depth discussions of the artist's works that follow. Common art appreciaters will enjoy beautiful paintings (of in general not-very-beautiful people) in which face expressions and body language are deploited ingeniusly by the artist to convey drunkeness, retardation, sovereignty, self-importance, etc... As for readers who are artists, an in-depth discussion on each painting reveals (with the aid of radiograph) techniques and procedures Velazquez used to create his work. In essence, a majority of Velazquez paintings were prepared with a layer of flake white as foundation. Over the underpainting, the artist applied pigments of different homogeneity and thickness to render desired effects. In addition, close-up pictures of painting details allow readers to understand better the secrets of creating luminosity in the paintings of this painter. Perhaps as interesting is that mistakes and corrections made by Velazquez in his masterpieces are also unveiled, indicating the fact that although ingenius, the artist did have certain "imperfections" in his art maneuver.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on the technique of Velazquez to date.
Review: This recent addition to my Velazquez collection, is by far the best yet on the technique of this master painter. Jonathan Brown has again produced a book with wonderful information and reproductions. A must have for the Art historian, Art lover, and Fanatic of Velazquez!
Rating:
Summary: Details, details, and more details
Review: This very fine book on the painter Velazquez is full of historical details, details of the master's painting techniques, and many photographic details of his masterpieces. The several close-up detail reproductions of each painting in the book show the artist's brush strokes and the weave of the canvas as the text describes the pigments used. This extraordinary art book deserves close examination.
Rating:
Summary: Details, details, and more details
Review: This very fine book on the painter Velazquez is full of historical details, details of the master's painting techniques, and many photographic details of his masterpieces. The several close-up detail reproductions of each painting in the book show the artist's brush strokes and the weave of the canvas as the text describes the pigments used. This extraordinary art book deserves close examination.
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