Painters’ artimañas. Ingenuity and technique in the age of Velázquez
Using the early modern notion of ingenuity (ingenio, in Spanish) as a vantage point, this paper will explore a number of interconnected themes associated with the practice of painting – matters of technique, in particular– in seventeenth-century Spain. In invoking the notion of ingenuity, my aim is to emphasise not only issues of creativity and invention but also, and especially, resourcefulness and craftiness. Thus, in this account artists will be characterised as cunning manipulators of materials and procedures, that is, masters of art and artfulness working for an audience familiarised with, and appreciative of, demonstrations of skill and finesse.