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Everything is Happening: Journey into a Painting
Michael Jacobs was haunted by Velázquez's enigmatic masterpiece Las Meninas from first encountering it in the Prado as a teenager. In Everything is Happening Jacobs searches for the ultimate significance of the painting by following the trails of associations from each individual character in the picture, as well as his own memories of and relationship to this extraordinary work.
From Jacobs' first trip to Spain, to the complex politics of Golden Age Madrid, to his meeting with the man who saved Las Meninas during the Spanish Civil war, via Jacobs' experiences of the sunless world of the art history academy, Jacobs' dissolves the barriers between the past and the present, the real and the illusory.
Cut short by Jacobs' death in 2014, and completed with an introduction and coda of great sensitivity and insight by his friend and fellow lover of art, the journalist Ed Vulliamy, this visionary, meditative and often very funny book is a passionate, personal manifesto for the liberation of how we look at painting.
From Jacobs' first trip to Spain, to the complex politics of Golden Age Madrid, to his meeting with the man who saved Las Meninas during the Spanish Civil war, via Jacobs' experiences of the sunless world of the art history academy, Jacobs' dissolves the barriers between the past and the present, the real and the illusory.
Cut short by Jacobs' death in 2014, and completed with an introduction and coda of great sensitivity and insight by his friend and fellow lover of art, the journalist Ed Vulliamy, this visionary, meditative and often very funny book is a passionate, personal manifesto for the liberation of how we look at painting.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published August 6, 2015
24 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
June 11, 2022
I was initially excited to start this book as I thought it would be an in depth analysis of this painting. It started out that way. It then turned into a social history of the relationship between the author and his university friends (famous Courtauld Art Historians) which is not interesting to me.
September 19, 2016
This book documents Jacob’s experiential journey to find the ultimate truth behind the painting of Velasquez’s ‘Las Meninas’.
Michael Jacobs died of renal cancer in 2014 leaving this unfinished book. The book is therefore structured as follows, Ed Vulliamy provides a forward and afterword. Michael Jacob’s piece is around 150 pages sandwiched between Ed’s parts.
Michael was born in Genoa, grew up in Britain but felt somewhat alienated from these isles and lived for the most part in a small Spanish village outside Granada.
The genesis for the book was Michael’s visit as a school boy to Spain during which he visited the Prado. So began a lifelong love affair with Velasquez’s mirror game painting. He went on to study art at the Courtauld Institute where he read Foucault’s essay on ‘Las Meninas’. Foucault saw it as a postmodern work moving from the classical world to the modern.
The 1656 painting depicts a number of attendants and royal persons standing in a palace room, the dwarf, the midget, the dog, the infanta Princess Margarita, Velasquez himself painting and gazing neutrally out of the painting or so it seems. King Philip IV and Queen Mariana are reflected in a mirror at the back of the room. Does the reflection of the King and Queen in the mirror indicate that they are in the room also or is it a reflection of the work of art? At the rear in an open doorway stands the master of the Queen’s Bedchamber Jose Nieto. Has he just escorted the King and Queen to the room or is he waiting to fetch the infanta. As one of Michael’s lecturers at the Courtauld Institute put it when speaking of the painting, “Nothing is happening, but in a sense everything is happening”. Many have puzzled over its meaning.
Jacobs covers the way the work was exhibited -
The painting was exhibited with a mirror in the room in the Prado for many years so visitors could see themselves and the painting, was this an interpretation or a gimmick. Velasquez apparently owned 10 mirrors so he may have liked this.
He covers the various views of the work by critics and other painters. Renoir said it made him want to give up painting, Picasso painted fifty-seven variants of it. It inspired Michel Foucault’s famous painting.
This book is part memoir, part detective work, part art critique. It is a potted history of the painting. Jacobs was also quite a prolific travel writer. You can’t help but like him and his unpretentious view of art. I was interested in Foucault’s essay and Jacobs travels and opinions on the significance of the work. I was not so interested in Ed Vulliamy’s relationship with Jacobs and Ed’s passage about Anthony Blunt. I felt that a lot of Ed’s part of the book could have been left out and was a little bit pretentious, something that Jacob’s would not have wanted. I liked it but even though it is unfortunate that such a great writer was taken so suddenly it’s still an unfinished book with the interpretations of a friend tacked on which means that my rating will be conservative.
I enjoyed this kind of experiential view of art and wish there were more books like this!
Michael Jacobs died of renal cancer in 2014 leaving this unfinished book. The book is therefore structured as follows, Ed Vulliamy provides a forward and afterword. Michael Jacob’s piece is around 150 pages sandwiched between Ed’s parts.
Michael was born in Genoa, grew up in Britain but felt somewhat alienated from these isles and lived for the most part in a small Spanish village outside Granada.
The genesis for the book was Michael’s visit as a school boy to Spain during which he visited the Prado. So began a lifelong love affair with Velasquez’s mirror game painting. He went on to study art at the Courtauld Institute where he read Foucault’s essay on ‘Las Meninas’. Foucault saw it as a postmodern work moving from the classical world to the modern.
The 1656 painting depicts a number of attendants and royal persons standing in a palace room, the dwarf, the midget, the dog, the infanta Princess Margarita, Velasquez himself painting and gazing neutrally out of the painting or so it seems. King Philip IV and Queen Mariana are reflected in a mirror at the back of the room. Does the reflection of the King and Queen in the mirror indicate that they are in the room also or is it a reflection of the work of art? At the rear in an open doorway stands the master of the Queen’s Bedchamber Jose Nieto. Has he just escorted the King and Queen to the room or is he waiting to fetch the infanta. As one of Michael’s lecturers at the Courtauld Institute put it when speaking of the painting, “Nothing is happening, but in a sense everything is happening”. Many have puzzled over its meaning.
Jacobs covers the way the work was exhibited -
The painting was exhibited with a mirror in the room in the Prado for many years so visitors could see themselves and the painting, was this an interpretation or a gimmick. Velasquez apparently owned 10 mirrors so he may have liked this.
He covers the various views of the work by critics and other painters. Renoir said it made him want to give up painting, Picasso painted fifty-seven variants of it. It inspired Michel Foucault’s famous painting.
This book is part memoir, part detective work, part art critique. It is a potted history of the painting. Jacobs was also quite a prolific travel writer. You can’t help but like him and his unpretentious view of art. I was interested in Foucault’s essay and Jacobs travels and opinions on the significance of the work. I was not so interested in Ed Vulliamy’s relationship with Jacobs and Ed’s passage about Anthony Blunt. I felt that a lot of Ed’s part of the book could have been left out and was a little bit pretentious, something that Jacob’s would not have wanted. I liked it but even though it is unfortunate that such a great writer was taken so suddenly it’s still an unfinished book with the interpretations of a friend tacked on which means that my rating will be conservative.
I enjoyed this kind of experiential view of art and wish there were more books like this!
March 24, 2019
Sometimes you "meet" an author and immediately feel a connection. This is how I feel about Michael Jacobs and his memoir of trying to unravel the "secrets" of Veláquez's masterpiece, Las Meninas. His work is both about the painting and everything-- it serves as the springboard to history, philosophy, the meaning of art, war, and his life. Jacobs is erudite and incredibly learned, but also very "with-it", willing to resort to Twitter for research if necessary. Unfortunately, he died before finishing his book, and it is finished by his good friend Ed Vulliamy, who reflects on his friendship with Jacobs.
What I really appreciate about Jacobs' work is how he is unapologetically nerdy about Velázquez; how he reflects on his past, who he was a young man, and who he is now; how he is willing to be silly in drawing connections between things (and recounts how a Serbian author once said that humans' great skills is attributing meaning to anything); and how he weaves his passion in with reflections on life and history. His work provides a model for how I might want to write a book someday (if I were to ever write a book).
What I really appreciate about Jacobs' work is how he is unapologetically nerdy about Velázquez; how he reflects on his past, who he was a young man, and who he is now; how he is willing to be silly in drawing connections between things (and recounts how a Serbian author once said that humans' great skills is attributing meaning to anything); and how he weaves his passion in with reflections on life and history. His work provides a model for how I might want to write a book someday (if I were to ever write a book).
August 23, 2018
Brilliant, heartbreaking and unfulfilled.
If you love art history, as I do, this book is very worthwhile. If you're traveling to the Prado in Madrid, I'd recommend this book.
This book is non-fiction. It's about art history, travel, the academic art world, Valasquez in general and La Meninas in particular.
The author began the book when he was diagnosed with cancer. He had less time than he thought and he died before he could finish it. He had help and the author who wrote the introduction and closing is interesting in his own right.
Loved the book and was left wanting so much more.
Still, I'd strongly recommend Everything is Happening.
I'm following up by reading a book that follows one of the threads the author intended to cover--the double-edged sword of art so famous it attracts people who don't nomally care about art. Famous Works of Art--and How They Got That Way, by John B. Nici, pretty much covers what it's title indicates. Even though it's very different from Everything is Happening, I'd recommend it to people interested in art and art history.
If you love art history, as I do, this book is very worthwhile. If you're traveling to the Prado in Madrid, I'd recommend this book.
This book is non-fiction. It's about art history, travel, the academic art world, Valasquez in general and La Meninas in particular.
The author began the book when he was diagnosed with cancer. He had less time than he thought and he died before he could finish it. He had help and the author who wrote the introduction and closing is interesting in his own right.
Loved the book and was left wanting so much more.
Still, I'd strongly recommend Everything is Happening.
I'm following up by reading a book that follows one of the threads the author intended to cover--the double-edged sword of art so famous it attracts people who don't nomally care about art. Famous Works of Art--and How They Got That Way, by John B. Nici, pretty much covers what it's title indicates. Even though it's very different from Everything is Happening, I'd recommend it to people interested in art and art history.
May 23, 2018
This is a very moving memoir written by Michael Jacobs toward the end of his life. It started as an exploration (or journey) into a painting in which the author tries to uncover or illuminate possible meanings behind the mystery of Las Meninas--but eventually is ended when he dies of cancer and his friend - the journalist Ed Vulliamy - pieces together the remaining notes and fragments and as a reviewer wonderfully describes below the book takes on the poignancy of an elegy. It is a wonderful book and deeply moving book about a great masterpiece by Velasquez.
March 3, 2018
This is as much a journey into a life as a journey into a painting. It’s a book that was started off by Michael Jacobs, and when his life was cut short, was finished off by his friend, journalist Ed Vuillany. Ultimately, you learn most about ‘Las Meninas’ and Jacobs through Vuillany’s poignant and moving closing chapter. I was lucky enough to combine reading ‘Everything is Happening’ with a trip to Madrid and ‘Las Meninas’ in the Prado.
May 1, 2021
Very few original insights about the great painting itself, and you’ll only get to them if you survive the horrendously self-indulgent introduction, which could genuinely have been written by Alan Partridge.
If you want to learn more about the painting and the painter, check out Laura Cumming’s recent The Vanishing Man instead - which offers a touching, incisive and original entry into the fascinating world of Velázquez and his masterwork.
If you want to learn more about the painting and the painter, check out Laura Cumming’s recent The Vanishing Man instead - which offers a touching, incisive and original entry into the fascinating world of Velázquez and his masterwork.
June 5, 2018
As poignant as this book is due to the circumstances of its completion or non completion, it doesn’t quite come together. Unfortunately as much as his friend Ed tries to carry the mantle and provide something of a conclusion, it’s not enough. But maybe the cliff hanger Jacob’s is forced to leave the book at provides us a mystery on a power with that of the painting.
July 21, 2016
A really wonderful book and touching to read. It was good that Michael Jacobs' work was taken forward even after his sudden terminal illness.
December 30, 2015
Imperfect, fractured, digressive ... and totally alluring. Also an interesting way into Foucault for students, perhaps...
September 28, 2020
Erudite and moving.
Not conventional art history but as the title implies a journey-book of searching interiority.
Also a very poignant meditation on late friendship.
Not conventional art history but as the title implies a journey-book of searching interiority.
Also a very poignant meditation on late friendship.
December 26, 2020
The story of a friendship is the frame for a dying man's life-lusting memoir, nested into his last traveling adventure in search of meaning inside a painting.
The narration of a life-long obsession becomes a mystery investigation, truncated by death and touchingly completed by the author's best friend, and at the same time reaches to the worlds of the political and philosophy, through the recalling of the Civil War in Spain, through loving memories of Anthony Blunt as a great teacher and as a scapegoat of philistine nationalism, and through an attempt at defining the nature of art as life, far from the "sunless" arid interpretations of the academic currents Jacobs encountered during his studies as art historian. By the way, his brief treatment of the way his peers have misunderstood Foucault is a pearl of concision and hilarious in its own way.
A book bursting with love - for art, for friends, for freedom of thought and interpretation, for Spain, Italy and South America, for people. I guess it will stay with me more than I thought it would.
EDIT: I left out the book's many shortcomings, such as the self-consciously embarrassed elitism of the Oxbridge alumni condemning the mass tourism that is nothing else than a side effect of accessibility of art, well, you know, to the masses; or the incredible provincialism of the British intellectual élites in the way they still live the Mediterranean as exotic dreamland without ever really engaging with it. There is a description of the crisis, the corruption scandals in Spain and of the Indignados protests that may look as politically conscious, but betrays a substantial hauteur, with Jacobs shaking his head at the plight of the protesting masses before proceeding to a luxurious cocktail on a rooftop bar with a curator quite on the aristocratic side of Spanish society. And Vulliamy's remark, in the coda, that his liberally Marxist friend brought the rage of the protesting masses with him inside the museum for a while, well, that would be comical if it were not infuriating.
However grating, though, these shortcomings don't subtract to the general tone of honesty of the book; instead, seem to contribute to it. Imperfect as everybody else, these two men are not afraid to expose themselves for whom they truly are in the interest of a better understanding of art and of its meaning, and appreciated that more than I would have a rigorously correct analysis devoided of interior truth.
The narration of a life-long obsession becomes a mystery investigation, truncated by death and touchingly completed by the author's best friend, and at the same time reaches to the worlds of the political and philosophy, through the recalling of the Civil War in Spain, through loving memories of Anthony Blunt as a great teacher and as a scapegoat of philistine nationalism, and through an attempt at defining the nature of art as life, far from the "sunless" arid interpretations of the academic currents Jacobs encountered during his studies as art historian. By the way, his brief treatment of the way his peers have misunderstood Foucault is a pearl of concision and hilarious in its own way.
A book bursting with love - for art, for friends, for freedom of thought and interpretation, for Spain, Italy and South America, for people. I guess it will stay with me more than I thought it would.
EDIT: I left out the book's many shortcomings, such as the self-consciously embarrassed elitism of the Oxbridge alumni condemning the mass tourism that is nothing else than a side effect of accessibility of art, well, you know, to the masses; or the incredible provincialism of the British intellectual élites in the way they still live the Mediterranean as exotic dreamland without ever really engaging with it. There is a description of the crisis, the corruption scandals in Spain and of the Indignados protests that may look as politically conscious, but betrays a substantial hauteur, with Jacobs shaking his head at the plight of the protesting masses before proceeding to a luxurious cocktail on a rooftop bar with a curator quite on the aristocratic side of Spanish society. And Vulliamy's remark, in the coda, that his liberally Marxist friend brought the rage of the protesting masses with him inside the museum for a while, well, that would be comical if it were not infuriating.
However grating, though, these shortcomings don't subtract to the general tone of honesty of the book; instead, seem to contribute to it. Imperfect as everybody else, these two men are not afraid to expose themselves for whom they truly are in the interest of a better understanding of art and of its meaning, and appreciated that more than I would have a rigorously correct analysis devoided of interior truth.
May 21, 2022
This book of Velásquez's painting Las Meninas reads like an extended personal essay. Insights of the painting, which have a more familiar art-history-academician flavour are intertwined with the author's two deeply personal experiences - (1) Jacobs meeting the people who helped transport and conserve the painting during the Civil War, and (2) quietly erudite reflections on his fascination with Las Meninas since his youth, and the following a string of events (read: summation of his life and profession) that came to shape him as an art historian and (as this reader infers from the autobiographic details and recollections) an educated, well-travelled man. Each chapter unpeels the layers to the painting in an approachable fashion, the real figures in the painting are identified, and the discussion even in its most 'technical' (on angles and vanishing points) feels like being privy to a brilliant private conversation (perhaps of self with oneself). The central argument revolves around the painting's plays with reflection and perspective, brilliantly enabling the work to reflect, imply, and so doing, bridge the divide separating painting and viewer. Jacobs suggests the crossing is two-fold: in space, bringing together the people in the painting and the people outside of it (who are hazily reflected in the mirror at the back). And in time, into its 'afterlife', where these historical figures continue to meet the gaze of the modern viewer looking into the frame. The books shows a work redolent with meaning, where every gesture, every figure and allusion has a place and purpose. In that space between this suggestion and the viewer's myriad possible conclusions lies the core of the painting's power. It is interesting to find, where today Foucault is bandied about for credit, Foucault's musings about the painting (less) and theories of perspective (more) sparking off profound and sincere revelations in the author. Since the core motivation for any laboured work of artistic criticism is surely love for its magic. Ed Vulliamy who writes the foreword that succinctly condenses these elements, feels no stranger to this, too.
April 11, 2023
This is an interesting book about a man's deep love and curiosity about a painting - Velázquez's Las medians. A journey to the writer's personal past, it considers the painting from a number of angles, offering insights which will not be surprising for those familiar or interested in the work but will open loads of perspectives for those who have not pondered or read much around this marvellous, inexhaustible and luminously human work of art and some vicissitudes around its actual history as an portable (albeit very big!) object. The book does not diminish the mystery and allure of Velázquez, on the contrary, it does point to the myriad elements that beguile; it also posits a particular insight I had not considered and which merits reading the book.
It is a truncated offering, as the author died before finishing it and a friend, Ed Vullamy, had to think how to present the material. He has done a good job with a prologue and a coda which manage to bookend the story in a satisfying way.
It is a truncated offering, as the author died before finishing it and a friend, Ed Vullamy, had to think how to present the material. He has done a good job with a prologue and a coda which manage to bookend the story in a satisfying way.
January 1, 2019
I have rambled on about my love of Diego Velázquez in other reviews so I'll skip the back story and go straight to my recent trip to Madrid, where I visited the Prado on two different occasions and spent approximately 6 hours in the Velázquez rooms. I can't even begin to express how amazing Las Meninas is in person, and I was very excited to pick up this book on Las Meninas in the Prado's giftshop.
Unfortunately, the author died while working on this book, so his unfinished text is book-ended by a forward and afterword by his friend Ed Vuillany. Jacob's prose is much more straightforward and engaging than Vuillany, who has a tendency to slip into academic jargon. However, Vuillany's ultimate conclusion on the meaning of Las Meninas was thrilling and one I had not previously encountered.
Unfortunately, the author died while working on this book, so his unfinished text is book-ended by a forward and afterword by his friend Ed Vuillany. Jacob's prose is much more straightforward and engaging than Vuillany, who has a tendency to slip into academic jargon. However, Vuillany's ultimate conclusion on the meaning of Las Meninas was thrilling and one I had not previously encountered.
October 6, 2017
The book starts off by reproducing Michael Jacobs's short, original text (which was always intended to be as much an exploration of his beloved Spain, its history and its people, as a voyage into the painting of 'Las Meninas' and the motivations of Velázquez). Following his death, his friend - the journalist Ed Vulliamy - pieces together the remaining notes and fragments and his coda takes on the poignancy of an elegy. By turns amusing, erudite, thought-provoking and provocative, the book straddles several different genres: art history, biography, travelogue, to name but a few. Well worth a read, but it probably helps if you like 'Las Meninas' in the first place.
December 21, 2021
Nothing is happening.
When does the book get to the part about the painting.
This book is more a history of a particular individual's encounters with a painting than a discussion of the painting itself.
Read 45%.
When does the book get to the part about the painting.
This book is more a history of a particular individual's encounters with a painting than a discussion of the painting itself.
Read 45%.
December 27, 2021
A poignant, moving, deeply passionate and personal account of a painting (Velazquez’s Las Meninas at the Prado), and why its meaning and relevance stretch well beyond the theme the artist depicts on its canvas. Art history at its finest - Bravo!!!
September 8, 2024
I bought this book with the intention to learn more about Las Meninas. While the book does provide some insight, I found it slow moving and somewhat boring with more accounts of the authors life loosely connected with the painting than insights about the painting itself. I stopped halfway.
November 2, 2018
This is such a poignant, thought-provoking read. I will never look at the painting in the same way.
August 25, 2020
I will reread before I go back to Spain! I mainly was here for information of Las Meninas and Velázquez and less on Michael Jacobs.
January 3, 2022
Story of one painting. What its history says about Spain and on the history of art. Very pignant due to the authors ill health.
October 23, 2022
3 1/2 stars
While this did not solve the mystery of Las Meninas for me, it is an interesting deep dive into Spanish history and the author’s views on why art matters.
While this did not solve the mystery of Las Meninas for me, it is an interesting deep dive into Spanish history and the author’s views on why art matters.
December 19, 2022
The introduction was the most interesting part.
January 22, 2023
Pretentious, and very little about the painting.
September 6, 2024
More about the author than the picture. In my mind, Diego is simply looking at Felipe VI, his descendant, when he visited the Prado in 2014. 😘
April 5, 2017
This is the last book written by art historian Michael Jacobs, and the fact that he didn't get to finish it makes it, I think, a different book than it would have been. He was deeply immersed in the the process of the writing and researching the subject of the book, the famous painting titled Las Meninas, when, in September of 2013, he went for a checkup complaining of a persistent back ache. What he thought was perhaps lumbago or a bit of arthritis was diagnosed as aggressive renal cancer. Michael Jacobs died five months later.
He'd had a long relationship with La Meninas, and the book was to be the fulfillment of that relationship. So the finality of the project became woven into the final five months of his life. Only the involvement and heart felt contribution of his friend Ed Vulliamy allowed Jacobs to continue putting his thoughts and writing together knowing that someone he trusted would finish it for him.
Las Meninas has fascinated a great many intellectuals since its creation in 1656. Jacobs was amazed to find the painting discussed at great length in a book titled The Order of Things by the popular modern philosopher, Michel Foucault. From that connection the book takes off exploring the depths of Las Meninas' multi-dimensional elements. Why would a 17th century painting be so relevant in the 21st century? Some say it is that mirror at the back of the room reflecting the king and queen who would be standing exactly where the viewer stands before the scene. Some say that the greatest importance of the painting is that Velazquez places himself with the royal family, gazing out (as do the king and queen in the mirror) at the viewer. That gaze in itself, shifting the whole idea of the painter looking at the viewer instead of vice versa, makes a shift in visual arts that was perhaps a harbinger of the camera. And then, especially for Jacobs, there is a sense of time. Vulliamy writes in the closing chapter " . . .Michael urges our appreciation and Proustian exploration of painting to entwine past, present and future, what Michael called 'the world within your mind and that without the gallery."
Honestly, I don't know how important a knowledge of painting is to the reader here. But I do know that because of the writer's illness and death, it is a book about life, about passions, and about friendship. And all of it is woven together with the painting. This is a painting that includes portraits of eleven people and one dog. It is a painting that could be a prompt for a creative writing class. It could be the inspiration for a movie. There is one very powerful aspect to Las Medians that was surprisingly not mentioned in this book: it is such a large painting that all the characters are close to life size.
I have stood in front of it twice, and each time it reminded me of watching the rehearsal for a play. And I think that is part of its power to pull the view into its life. That's the reason that time seems so strange. It is happening in the present moment, though it took place hundreds of years ago. It is alive with you, and if you doubt that, just look into his eyes, Velázquez stepping back from his large canvas as if to get the color of your eyes exactly right.
This is an enchanting book; intellectually challenging in one moment, emotionally challenging in the next. Too bad not all art historians have this living relationship with art, and how very sad that this art historian had to pass away before giving us more from his brilliant mind and heart.
Merged review:
Seldom is the mood of a book influence by the death of the author, but that is the case in this fascinating, almost obsessive meditation on the life of the painting titled, La Meninas. I may already have written my comments on this, but some time last year I dropped away from recording my reading, so I am playing catch up.
Las Meninas is more than a painting. More than a work of art. It is a strange net that captures people in it like fish in the sea. My own experiences of standing in its presence played a big part in my enthusiasm for reading Michael Jacobs book. I have also a book of paintings done by Picasso, all meditations on Las Meninas. I've read a good deal about it, yet, I learned so much about its life. Imagine this huge canvas thrown out a windows and carried off in the back of a truck to save it from fascists.
I recommend this to anyone interested in Las Meninas, but also anyone who understands the role art plays in our lives. Jacobs shares his Spanish experiences, the flavors and moods of the country and its people along with the uncovered facts about the painting that lives within him it seems, until he ceases to live no more. In fact, he did not get to see the publication of this book. It was finished by his devoted friend and colleague, Ed Villiamy.
Just as Las Meninas is more than a painting, Everything is Happening is more than a book.
He'd had a long relationship with La Meninas, and the book was to be the fulfillment of that relationship. So the finality of the project became woven into the final five months of his life. Only the involvement and heart felt contribution of his friend Ed Vulliamy allowed Jacobs to continue putting his thoughts and writing together knowing that someone he trusted would finish it for him.
Las Meninas has fascinated a great many intellectuals since its creation in 1656. Jacobs was amazed to find the painting discussed at great length in a book titled The Order of Things by the popular modern philosopher, Michel Foucault. From that connection the book takes off exploring the depths of Las Meninas' multi-dimensional elements. Why would a 17th century painting be so relevant in the 21st century? Some say it is that mirror at the back of the room reflecting the king and queen who would be standing exactly where the viewer stands before the scene. Some say that the greatest importance of the painting is that Velazquez places himself with the royal family, gazing out (as do the king and queen in the mirror) at the viewer. That gaze in itself, shifting the whole idea of the painter looking at the viewer instead of vice versa, makes a shift in visual arts that was perhaps a harbinger of the camera. And then, especially for Jacobs, there is a sense of time. Vulliamy writes in the closing chapter " . . .Michael urges our appreciation and Proustian exploration of painting to entwine past, present and future, what Michael called 'the world within your mind and that without the gallery."
Honestly, I don't know how important a knowledge of painting is to the reader here. But I do know that because of the writer's illness and death, it is a book about life, about passions, and about friendship. And all of it is woven together with the painting. This is a painting that includes portraits of eleven people and one dog. It is a painting that could be a prompt for a creative writing class. It could be the inspiration for a movie. There is one very powerful aspect to Las Medians that was surprisingly not mentioned in this book: it is such a large painting that all the characters are close to life size.
I have stood in front of it twice, and each time it reminded me of watching the rehearsal for a play. And I think that is part of its power to pull the view into its life. That's the reason that time seems so strange. It is happening in the present moment, though it took place hundreds of years ago. It is alive with you, and if you doubt that, just look into his eyes, Velázquez stepping back from his large canvas as if to get the color of your eyes exactly right.
This is an enchanting book; intellectually challenging in one moment, emotionally challenging in the next. Too bad not all art historians have this living relationship with art, and how very sad that this art historian had to pass away before giving us more from his brilliant mind and heart.
Merged review:
Seldom is the mood of a book influence by the death of the author, but that is the case in this fascinating, almost obsessive meditation on the life of the painting titled, La Meninas. I may already have written my comments on this, but some time last year I dropped away from recording my reading, so I am playing catch up.
Las Meninas is more than a painting. More than a work of art. It is a strange net that captures people in it like fish in the sea. My own experiences of standing in its presence played a big part in my enthusiasm for reading Michael Jacobs book. I have also a book of paintings done by Picasso, all meditations on Las Meninas. I've read a good deal about it, yet, I learned so much about its life. Imagine this huge canvas thrown out a windows and carried off in the back of a truck to save it from fascists.
I recommend this to anyone interested in Las Meninas, but also anyone who understands the role art plays in our lives. Jacobs shares his Spanish experiences, the flavors and moods of the country and its people along with the uncovered facts about the painting that lives within him it seems, until he ceases to live no more. In fact, he did not get to see the publication of this book. It was finished by his devoted friend and colleague, Ed Villiamy.
Just as Las Meninas is more than a painting, Everything is Happening is more than a book.
July 7, 2016
Michael Jacobs´ last book he couldn´t finish himself, so the notes he had made were put in the right order by his wife and accompanied by an introduction and an extensive coda by his friend Ed Vulliamy. This way, "Everything is happening" definitely ended up being a different work than that intended at the start of the project, and although the coda was very interesting, I noticed I enjoyed the notes by MJ a lot better than the added parts. Maybe because I don´t have a degree in arts, I thought that quite a fair bit of the coda was difficult to follow...apart from the bottom line of the "interpretation" of Las Meninas by MJ&EV, which I really appreciated (I don´t want to go into detail, as it is essential to the "journey into the painting"). I read this book because in the past I had really liked MJ´s travel books and because I live in Madrid and Las Meninas is one of those works of art that I like to go and have a(nother) look at; I´m not sure whether that is sufficient to enjoy this book thoroughly.
November 21, 2016
Wanted to read this as the picture is so intriguing -real people from the Spanish court, including the painter. Who are the people in the mirror at the back ( probably the king and queen), what is the painter painting -or are the king and queen reflected in the mirror from the painting? -who is going ( or coming in at the open door); enigmatic expressions and stillness of the other people etc
Michael Jacobs died before he finished the book so his friend and colleague Ed Vulliamy has addd a final section. There is a lot about the placing of the picture ahead of its time, and the philosophy of art and life which is fairly dense and also much about how MJ was haunted by the picture ( and Spain in general) , how it was hung in the Prato and what the effect of the light in particular rooms had on viewing the picture . Interesting , hated to read, and lots of questions unanswered -but that is also part of its appeal-the viewer has to look hard and in the end the intrigue draws you in to the picture.
Michael Jacobs died before he finished the book so his friend and colleague Ed Vulliamy has addd a final section. There is a lot about the placing of the picture ahead of its time, and the philosophy of art and life which is fairly dense and also much about how MJ was haunted by the picture ( and Spain in general) , how it was hung in the Prato and what the effect of the light in particular rooms had on viewing the picture . Interesting , hated to read, and lots of questions unanswered -but that is also part of its appeal-the viewer has to look hard and in the end the intrigue draws you in to the picture.
December 28, 2015
Superb book learned a lot especially from the Coda ...
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