Moriones

Velázquez desaparecido, una emocionante indagación en el complejo significado de la autenticidad, rastrea la inquebrantable determinación que impulsa a artistas y coleccionistas, y viaja de la extravagante corte española de la década de 1700 a las despiadadas casas de subastas de Londres y Nueva York en el siglo XIX.

En 1845, el librero inglés John Snare se topó con el retrato ennegrecido de un príncipe. Al sospechar que podía tratarse de un Velázquez perdido mucho tiempo atrás, compró el cuadro y se propuso averiguar su extraña historia. Cuando Laura Cumming tropezó a su vez con la historia de John Snare, emprendió su propia búsqueda, cuyo objeto incluía tanto la vida del librero como la vida y obra de Velázquez, un pintor tan maravilloso como escurridizo.

Velázquez desaparecido recoge esta enigmática historia y, además, constituye un magnífico acercamiento a la figura del pintor español que cambiará para siempre nuestra apreciación de su obra.

Reseñas:
«Velázquez desaparecido no solo es una apasionante historia detectivesca y una brillante reconstrucción de una controversia artística, sino que también es un homenaje a la obra de Velázquez, escrito por una crítica absolutamente hechizada por su genio, del mismo modo que los lectores quedarán hechizados por su libro.»
Colm Tóibín

«Ingenioso e intrigante. Cumming entreteje las dos historias -la de Snare y la de Velázquez- con tal sutileza que se iluminan entre sí de manera sorprendente.»
Mark Hudson, The Daily Telegraph

«Una historia extraordinaria. Este estupendo libro es muchas cosas, un estudio de la obsesión, un canto de alabanza a un artista de genio, una historia de detectives y, para el autor, un exorcismo de la pena.»
Honor Clerk, The Spectator

English Description

?As compelling and entertaining as a detective novel” (The Economist), the incredible true story?part art history and part mystery?of a Velázquez portrait that went missing and the obsessed nineteenth-century bookseller determined to prove he had found it. When John Snare, a nineteenth century provincial bookseller, traveled to a liquidation auction, he found a vivid portrait of King Charles I that defied any explanation. The Charles of the painting was young?too young to be king?and yet also too young to be painted by the Flemish painter to whom the piece was attributed. Snare had found something incredible?but what? His research brought him to Diego Velázquez, whose long-lost portrait of Prince Charles has eluded art experts for generations. Velázquez (1599?1660) was the official painter of the Madrid court, during the time the Spanish Empire teetered on the edge of collapse. When Prince Charles of England?a man wealthy enough to help turn Spain’s fortunes?proposed a marriage with a Spanish princess, he allowed just a few hours to sit for his portrait, and Snare believed only Velázquez could have been the artist of choice. But in making his theory public, Snare was ostracized and forced to choose, like Velázquez himself, between art and family. A thrilling investigation into the complex meaning of authenticity and the unshakable determination that drives both artists and collectors of their work, The Vanishing Velázquez is a ?brilliant” (The Atlantic) tale of mystery and detection, of tragic mishaps and mistaken identities, of class, politics, snobbery, crime, and almost farcical accident that reveals how one historic masterpiece was crafted and lost, and how far one man would go to redeem it. Laura Cumming’s book is ?sumptuous...A gleaming work of someone at the peak of her craft” (The New York Times).