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Artwork · 1635 · History painting

The Surrender of Breda

Diego Velazquez
1635 · Oil on Canvas
El Prado, Madrid
★ 8.8 editorial score

Ambrogio Spinola, the Genoese general of the Spanish army, lays a hand on the shoulder of the defeated Justinus van Nassau, who bends to offer the key of Breda after the city's surrender in 1625; behind them a thicket of upright lances gives the picture its Spanish nickname, Las Lanzas. Velázquez painted it in 1634-35 for the Hall of Realms of the Buen Retiro palace, turning a war trophy into an image of magnanimity between equals. It hangs in the Prado, Madrid, among the supreme history paintings of the Baroque.

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Quote · 1986

“They come from the end of the line, most of 'em—small towns you never heard of: Pulaski, Tennessee; Brandon, Mississippi; Pork Bend, Utah; Wampum, Pennsylvania. Two years' high school's about it. Maybe if they're lucky, a job waiting for them back in a factory. But most of 'em got nothing. They're poor. They're the unwanted. Yet they're fighting for our society and our freedom. It's weird, isn't it? At the bottom of the barrel, they know it. Maybe that's why they call themselves "grunts", 'cause a grunt can take it—can take anything.”

Chris