Das Geheimnis von Velázquez

Édouard Manet praised him as the 'painter of all painters', Salvador Dalí called him the 'glory of Spain' and Pablo Picasso dedicated his own series of paintings to his 'great idol', but who was Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) really? With 'The Court Misses', the court painter of the Spanish king created one of the most influential paintings of all time, painted portraits of the royal family, the pope, but also of the common people and left behind a life's work comprising over 200 paintings. Despite this prominence, much about Velázquez remains nebulous to this day. Where does his unrivalled mastery of light and shadow come from, which gives his Baroque portraits subtle tones and a lively atmosphere, and which only became socially acceptable in Impressionism a century later? How did he give his portraits this unprecedented realism?

The cinema documentary 'The Secret of Velázquez' (2025) by Stéphane Sorlat traces the echoes of a brilliant painter that echo in countless works by world-famous artists and remain mysterious to this day. A unique cinematic journey through 400 years of living art history.