View of the Garden of the Villa Medici

In 1629 Velazquez, not yet thirty and already painter to the Spanish king, was given leave to travel to Italy. He spent months in Rome, and for part of that time he was lodged in the Villa Medici, the grand house and gardens on the Pincian Hill. This little view of its grounds is one of the surprises of his whole career. There is no story in it, no saint or myth to justify it, just a corner of a garden with a loggia, a couple of figures, cloth hung out to dry, and boards closing off an arch. He seems to have set it down outdoors, in front of the thing itself, catching a particular fall of afternoon light. Painters would not make that a regular habit for another 200 years.