Velázquez’s The Waterseller of Seville and Two Young Men Eating at a Humble Table

On August 17-18th a team from Factum Foundation worked in London’s Apsley House to record two paintings by Velázquez: The Waterseller of Seville and Two Young Men Eating at a Humble Table. This recording, which took an extra effort to organise due to the COVID-19 pandemic, represents an important step forward in the initiative to digitise and make facsimiles of the most representative artworks from the artist’s early life in Seville (1618-1623).

Elizabeth Mitchell operating the Lucida 3D Scanner to record the surface of the Waterseller of Seville © Factum Foundation

The Lucida 3D Scanner recording the surface © Factum Foundation

Gabriel Scarpa recording the colour using panoramic composite photography © Factum Foundation

The work was carried out using panoramic composite photography and the Lucida 3D Scanner to document the originals’ colour and surface texture in high-resolution. The recording of the two paintings at the Wellington Collection was made possible by the generosity of the Duke of Wellington and English Heritage, particularly the Keeper of the Wellington Collection and their Paintings Conservators who care for the paintings.

The data was given to Apsley House to help draw attention to the remarkable collection of paintings and assist in the preservation and study of these two works. The facsimiles are under production at Factum Arte’s studios in Madrid.