The last pictures Velázquez painted? A proposal'.

More than 500 works of art were lost in the fire at the Real Alcázar, including many important paintings by Titian, Veronese, Rubens and Velázquez. The only one to escape the flames of the four mythological scenes by Velázquez that hung in the Hall of Mirrors was Mercury and Argus (1659).

The Royal Inventories of the late 17th century inform us that the three missing paintings were depictions of Venus and Adonis, Apollo and Marsias and Psyche and Cupid. Thanks to these same inventories we can form a fairly accurate idea of the size of the canvases, and know approximately where they were hung. What we do not have is any reference to their appearance.

Simon Edmondson's idea was to paint these three lost stories of Ovid in the same manner, in terms of atmosphere, light and technique, as in Mercury and Argus, the only one that survives. The tension in the latter painting is due to an atmosphere of suspense and premeditation, which he has also tried to maintain in various ways. It was interesting to have to decide which moment Velázquez would have chosen within each story. In this case he has opted for the format of pairs in landscapes, flanking the two violent central scenes with the death of Adonis on the left and the resurrection of Psyche on the right.

"I imagine the four paintings, each with its partner painted on the same scale, forming a kind of eye-level frieze above the famous lion tables all along the south wall of the great hall of state. - Simon Edmondson.