La Rendición de Breda (English: The Surrender of Breda), also known as El Cuadro de las Lanzas or Las Lanzas, is a painting by Velázquez, painted during the years 1634–35, and inspired while Velazquez was visiting Italy with Ambrosio Spinola, the Italian general who conquered Breda on June 5, 1625. It is considered one of the Velázquez' best artworks. Jan Morris has called it "one of the most Spanish of all pictures" (Jan Morris 1964: "Spain", p....
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La Rendición de Breda (English: The Surrender of Breda), also known as El Cuadro de las Lanzas or Las Lanzas, is a painting by Velázquez, painted during the years 1634–35, and inspired while Velazquez was visiting Italy with Ambrosio Spinola, the Italian general who conquered Breda on June 5, 1625. It is considered one of the Velázquez' best artworks. Jan Morris has called it "one of the most Spanish of all pictures" (Jan Morris 1964: "Spain", p.29).
The capture of Breda in 1625 was one of the few major successes of Spanish arms in the latter stages of the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish general, the Genoese aristocrat Ambrosio Spinola, conquered Breda in contradiction to the instructions of his superiors. Even before its capture the Spanish government had already decided that siege warfare of heavily defended towns of the Low Countries was too wasteful and that it would concentrate on the economic blockade of the Dutch republic. By then the the bulk of Spanish forces were being...
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