425 ANNIV VELÁZQUEZ (2024) 1 OZ SPINNERSID92947005
On the occasion of the commemoration of the 425th anniversary of Diego Velázquez, the Royal Mint of Spain is dedicating a collection of commemorative coins to the Spanish painter, a Spanish Baroque painter considered one of the greatest exponents of Spanish painting and a master of universal painting.
On the obverse is a reproduction of the work entitled ‘Las hilanderas’ (‘The spinners’), painted by Diego Velázquez between 1655 and 1660, which is in the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.
On the reverse is a reproduction of the monument to Diego Velázquez by the Sevillian sculptor Antonio Susillo, which is located in the Plaza del Duque de la Victoria in Seville.
| Shape | Square |
| Series | 425 Anniversary of Velázquez |
| Year | 2024 |
| Colour | Yes |
| Quality | Proof |
| Face Value (Euro) | 10 |
| Size (mm) | 36x36 |
| Alloy (‰) | 999 |
| Metal | Silver |
| Weight (g) | 31.41 |
| Maximum Mintage (units) | 5,000 |
"THE SPINNERS" 425 ANNIVERSARY VELÁZQUEZ (2024) OUNCE
Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva and
Seville, 1599 - Madrid, 1660
He adopted his mother's surname, as was common in Andalusia, signing his name ‘Diego Velázquez’ or ‘Diego de Silva Velázquez’. He studied and practised the art of painting in his native city until he was twenty-four, when he moved with his family to Madrid and entered the service of the king from then until his death in 1660. Much of his work was destined for the royal collections and then passed to the Prado, where it is preserved. Most of the pictures he painted in Seville, however, went to foreign collections, especially from the 19th century onwards.
Considered the most important painter of the Spanish Baroque period, Diego Velázquez became a court painter at the court of Philip IV, which enabled him to study the great masters of national and international art. His enormous artistic output, including such emblematic works as ‘Las Meninas’, has left an indelible mark on the universal history of painting.
The Spinners.
This painting is the result of two acts carried out in different periods. First, Velázquez painted the surface occupied by the figures and the tapestry in the background. Later, in the 18th century, a wide strip (with the arch and oculus) was added to the top, along with narrower ones on the left, right and bottom (these additions are not visible in the current presentation of this work). Those alterations affected the reading of the work`s content, making what occurs in front of the tapestry appear farther away. Consequently, viewers have long seen it as a representation of an everyday scene in a tapestry workshop, with spinning activities represented by Velázquez in the foreground and ladies standing before a tapestry in the background. In the nineteen thirties and forties, various critics and historians expressed their belief that this apparently costumbrista work actually had a mythological content. The discovery of the inventory of Alcázar employee, Pedro de Arce`s property confirmed their suspicions. Drawn up in 1664, it lists a Fable of Arachne by Velázquez with dimensions quite close to those of this painting`s oldest fragment. There, the main elements of this mythological story are in the background, where the goddess, Pallas, wearing her helmet, argues with Arachne as the two compete to show their respective skills in the art of weaving. The tapestry behind them bears the image of The Rape of Europa that Titian painted for Philip II (now at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston), which Rubens also copied during his stay in Madrid in 1628-1629. This was one of the erotic stories of Pallas` father, Jupiter, that Arachne had dared to weave, and it furnished Pallas with an excuse to turn her into a spider.