Vulcan’s Forge

1630

Oil on canvas, 223 × 290 cm · Museo del Prado, Madrid

Painted in Rome during Velázquez’s first Italian trip, without a commission, then sold by the artist to Philip IV in 1634. It shows the moment the smith god hears bad news.

Apollo, in orange with a laurel wreath and a halo of light, tells Vulcan that his wife Venus is Mars’s lover.
The armour on the anvil is being made for Mars.
Look at whole bodies freezing mid-movement, not only faces, to show the shock.
Velázquez’s first large work on a lead-white ground, giving it a lighter tone.

Hephaestus (Roman Vulcan) is the lame smith god, maker of the gods’ weapons and married to Aphrodite. Apollo, who sees everything, reveals her affair.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain