This is a portrait of Diego Velazquez, from his arrival at the court of King Philip IV of Spain, to his death 38 years & scores of paintings later. It is a portrait of a relationship that is not quite a friendship, between an artist & his subject. It is a portrait of a ruler, always on duty, & increasingly burdened by a life of public expectation & repeated private grief. & it is a portrait of a court collapsing under the weight of its own excess. Unfolding through series of masterly set-pieces & glancing sketches, this is a novel of brilliance, imagination & sheer style -- about what is shown & what is seen, about art & life.