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by artist Carol Lorraine Sutton
a part of the Series of:
AN IDEA BECOMES PAINTING, Velazquez painting The Surrender of Breda or Las Lanzas' inspires series of abstract paintings
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The Surrender
of Breda or Las Lanzas
Before 1635
Oil on canvas
10' 7/8" x 12' 1/2" (307 x 367 cm)
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Seeing and studying Diego Velazquez' 'The Surrender of Breda or
Las Lanzas' became the start of my own Breda paintings. Diego Rodriguez
de Silva y Vélazquez often-used device of the central hollow core
in the painting became the main impetus in a number of paintings that I
did. Mainly in three different formats. Either whole, that is one entire
piece of canvas, or as SET-CUT's on canvas begun in 1985 (see statement
below this paragraph), and finally as extended-edge paper works. All were
painted in mainly Golden Paints Acrylics onto all cotton canvas. Essentially
this Breda motif became a dark surround with a lighter central core.
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The SET-CUT paintings:
Excerpt from CAROL SUTTON"S NEW SILHOUETTE GRILL- BALCONY PAINTINGS:
New Paintings a& Extended Edge Paper Works
April 1- 19, 1989
Gallery One, 121 Scollard Street, Toronto, Ontario M5R 1G4
"This show has in it both whole large scale paintings and "SET-CUT" works. These "SET-CUT" works of my own invention; are painting where the cut of the 'crop' is done before the picture is painted. By simply laying down one piece of canvas overlapping the edge of the next I am able to paint free to gesture within a large scale and simultaneously can remember or forget "The break" point (the edge); with the final canvas then separated unusual breaks occur in the composition some of which I call "dangling participles". A 2 section horizontal SET-CUT in this show, Beaulieu-sur-Mer Schoolyard Gate Set-Cut and French Schoolyard Gate Set-Cut, fortuitously has as a cut point the break point of the gate opening itself: as if it were open. Here the cut provides the fiction of the actual gate opening."
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THE IDEA EXPANDED TO LINK ANY TWO ARTISTS TOGETHER
This idea soon expanded and I added the additional
idea of linking any two artists together as source matter, just as the two
Generals Justin of Nassau and Spinola had been linked, two major, but culturally
unlinked artists. I would combine two unlinked artists, in this case Cezanne
and 
Gainsborough. Cezanne is represented by his love and often used earth
tone palette of brown, green, and blue. Gainsborough represented by the
bright white edging lines and the blue and white strips as used in his painting
titled Ms. Siddons. I replaced each chosen artist with a brief palette of
colors, keeping in mind their personal touch and take on their art. The
exact content was taken away from the material. Example: (1986) 'You
the Beholder (Cezanne to Gainsborough Breda)' [see illustration
to right]. The idea of linking two major, but culturally
unlinked artists I had used prior to the Breda paintings. Earlier I did
other paintings inspired by Velazquez's paintings . Velazquez Princess
Infanta Margarita with Ghiberti Bronze Door 1400 on Cork with Gold and Black
Sash #3, painted on cotton canvas, for example was painted in February
21, of 1986; it used both the idea of the two unlinked sources plus the
influence of Velazquez. [#86/02/21, ©1986, 81" by 89 1/2",
Golden Acrylic [high load gesso underground and full bodied color] on cotton
canvas] In this respect the Breda paintings were an extension of what I
was already doing. At the same time as this painting I did an adjunctive
group of four large extended edge paper works with similar colors of paint
that were painted on thin sheets of real cork. Example: Velazquez and
Ghiberti on Cork, 38 1/2" x 45" pr 97.7cm x 114.3cm, Inventory
# 86/02/21A.
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gainsborough.gif |
Source: Gainsborough represented by the bright white edging lines and the blue and white strips as used in his painting titled: Miss Siddons.
Thomas Gainsborough. Mrs. Sarah Siddons. 1785. Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London, England, United Kingdom |
HOLLOW CENTRAL CORE WITH STRIPES and A DARK SURROUND & PAINTING APPLICATION
All the Breda pictures essentially
have a dark color surround with a central field of light colors. The internal
field is often made of thrown color zones that are in effect an echo the
pastel colored soldiers. The external dark surround is based on Velazquez
often-used device of a central hollow core. The base of this surround dark
field is often made up of more than one color washed on as a 'High Load
Color' by Golden Paints, this was previously called 'High Load Gesso', in
effect a colored gesso with a high stain quality similar to their 'Fluid'
line of paints. [Golden Artists Colors, of New Berlin, New York State]When
it dries it has a sort of "tooth" to it, a certain dry grip as
if it were a Velcro tab {The receiving side of the Velcro, not the hook
side of the Velcro.} I find that this colored gesso surface holds any additional
paint placed on it extremely well. In addition it provides extremely rich
and fully saturated color hue. This external area often has repeated stripes
or lines of bold color as found in the uniforms of both generals, Justin
of Nassau and Spinola. These external areas of stripes were painted by loading
a giant peanut shaped car-wash type of sponge, loaded up with a mixture
of heavy body acrylic paint, gel and molding paste. A spray gun was also
used on these paintings. I had brought my own spray gun system down from
Toronto to the workshop. [image: Absorption Ricture Traditional
True Color Breda with Lace Areas, 1987, January 30,Golden Acrylic on
cotton canvas, 89" x 109 1/2" or 226.1 cm by 278.1 cm]
THE LIGHT PATCH THAT HOLDS JUSTIN'S HAND PASSING THE KEYS IS THE KEY TO THE ENTIRE PAINTING
All the
Breda pictures essentially have a dark surround with a central light field
of colors. Study of a close detail of Velazquez' 'The Surrender
of Breda or Las Lanzas reveals a central hollow core view towards
a distant evocative landscape surrounded by the two generals. Each general
has a dark 
uniform. This only heightens the contrast
of the lighter core patch just between the two men, placing them in a charged
atmosphere. This light patch is the focal point of the entire painting.
Not only does this light patch hold the picture of the keys of the city
of Breda, that Justin is handing over to Spinola, it is the key to
the entire painting. The bodies of the two generals, their actual physics,
are what make up the part that is the dark surround. Justin flanks the left
in his dark brown uniform with marks of black and gold. While Spinola flanks
the right in his even darker blue-black uniform with sharp bright gold highlights
and his large circular black hat closes off the bottom of this essential
circle. 
But it is what Velazquez does in the lighter center of this core that
is fully pictorial groundbreaking in the history of art. It proves that
Velazquez is a bold thinker. Radical use of bands that are different hues
of pastel colors to indicate the garments of the soldiers is pure delightful
invention by Velazquez. This super charged light background tends to highlight
the keys held out in the hand of Nassau as he surrenders the key to the
city of Breda to the victorious General Spinola is a complete miniature
painting within the larger universe of the entire canvas.
" Rubens would not indulge himself in complaint. He had been told, predictably, that travel would dull the grief he felt for the passing of his wife Isabella Brant. But he was fifty and had seen more than his share of dales and woods and the fly-plagued rumps of horses plodding on their way. The better counsel was to work-to paint, but also to pitch himself into the business of the other Isabella, the Infanta; to busy his brain with the ills of the commonwealth. The Lord only knew there were ills enough. Two years before, there had been rejoicing, even in the midst of the plague. Breda had fallen to the besieging army of his friend (of Rubens) the Marquis Ambrogio Spinola, who had done the gentlemanly thing and allowed the Dutch garrison and its commander, Justinus van Nassau, the last of Williams' bastards, to march out with their standards. " End quote
Spinola's reception to Justin of Nassau is chivalrous and generous in manner. A meeting between to great men. It is interesting that this is the point of time that Velazquez chose to depict and not the height of the battle raging. Also of interest is the fact that Velazquez actually knew General Spinola, having set sail from Barcelona "on August, 1629, with Genoa as his destination. On the same voyage sailed Ambrosio de Spinola, the victor of Breda."
It is wonderful to think of what dinner conversations they may have shared
on this voyage. This meeting also means that the painting of Spinola in
the Las Lanzas was also a portrait of a gentleman that Velazquez actually
knew.
breda_key_light.jpg
Spinola on left in black, Justin on right in brown.
Within this circle of the two generals framed by the upper arm of Spinola and closed off in the lower part by the dimly lit left hand of Spinola holding his hat, are the Spanish soldiers torsos cut in half by the general's extended arm. A cluster of pastel colored soldiers.
This is radical creativity on the part of Velazquez. And pure fiction. Soldiers do not dress up in pastel colored uniforms for war. But here the lower four fifths of the bodies of the seven visible soldiers have their uniforms in pastel colors. While the upper one-fifth are their heads, which come in line just above the black and gold armored arm of the Spanish General Spinola and are by contrast to their bodies in complete aerial perspective fading into a bluish distance evocative virtuosity and beauty of unfolding depth. In other words the hatted heads are complete different from the bodies. Almost as if their bodies were in the army of the spiritual and lit afterlife, while their heads are in the army of the reality of those still living on this earth. All the heads are even draw in soft brown and drab colored earth tones. To me this is one of the most radical devices Velazquez ever used. Simply brilliant thinking. What are these lines or bars of Noland like pastel colors? Left to right they are: first pastel green, second pastel blue-green, next to that a pastel yellow, followed by pastel pink, then pastel blue {this blue figure is the most prominent and detailed of all the group}, next to the last is a pastel cream, and finally on the far right is pastel green again.
THE FIRST BREDA PAINTING
The
first Breda painting I did was painted at Triangle Artist Workshop* between
July 28th and finished on July 30th of 1986: First Whole Breda #14,
[80.5" x 106" or 204.4cm by 269.2cm, Golden Acrylic on cotton
canvas] {see image to the left] was based on Velazquez's own historic painting
'The Surrender of Breda or Las Lanzas,' dated as painted before
1635. This work did not actually use the same colors as in Velazquez's Breda
but others. I did do a traditional colored painting in the form or a 3 section
horizontal SET-CUT while at Triangle Artists Workshop* in August
of 1986, but did not paint a full whole one until a year later in 1987{see
image above- Absorption Ricture Traditional True Color
Breda with Lace Areas}. At that workshop in Pine Plains, New
York State which took place on the estate of the Mashomac Fish and Game
Preserve, I met for the first time Michael Fried, who had a profound
effect on my artwork. I heard his lectures at night in the club house and
had the benefit of his criticism in the barn studio, and his thinking and
encouragement. I also read his book, 'Absorption and Theatricality'**,
whose actual title became the source for some of my own painting titles,
for example,
Absorption Picture Traditional True Color
Breda with Lace Areas (1987)
and also
You the Beholder (Cezanne to Gainsborough Breda)
(1986)
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A SHORT FICTION STORY ABOUT A KING, A PAINTER, AND A KEY!
I have even invented a little short story on how I think is light painting of the soldier's uniforms in pastel colors may have happened.
It goes something like this.
Velazquez was nearly finished with the painting when the King Philip IV said that he would like to see it. Velazquez agreed to show it to him. As the King walked in he seemed pleased. After spending some time looking at the picture, the King said, " It is a great painting and I like every aspect, but I wish you could make the key part a little more pronounced." And with that left the room. Velazquez thought about it over night and the next day went in afresh to the studio and began to change the brown-grey area that was then the same colors as those above the general's arm into light colors, but only under the arm of Spinola. It is not only a general light over-all color filled into this area. No, instead he would make an entire rainbow of light pastel colors marching as soldiers would march, across this spot. When the King saw it again he was entirely pleased.
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NEVER EXHIBITED
The BREDA PAINTINGS have never been exhibited as an entire group in any show, but a few have been in other shows. For example, the Breda scheme works painted at Triangle Artists Workshop were available for viewing at the closing show in August of 1986.
One of these paintings was shown in the Oakham House show organized by
Terrence Sulymko in 1990.The solo largest single painting in this exhibition
was stretched and framed for exhibit. It was titled : (1987) Voice
of Spirit in Absorbed State.
The remainder of these paintings are still rolled up and in storage in my studio at 27 Davies Avenue in Toronto. In the year 1987 a few of the Breda type were painted in Barcelona, Spain.
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EXHIBITED
In addition to these Breda paintings I also did another whole series of works titled: LINEAR BREDA'S. A show consisted of only five of these giant works was held at Gallery One.
16.
(1986) pair of paintings photographed in the 27 Davies Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the studio of the artist
Viollet-le-Duc Visual Violet (B) (on left) & Viollet-le-Duc Breda to Eye (A) (on right)
December 2, 1986,
both size 89 inches by 98 inches, Golden Acrylic on Canvas
Physical Materials: Golden Acrylic, including high load or colored gessos and full-body color,
Source Materials: Based on Viollet-le-Duc's light study of stain glass
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