Clue Watch: Diego Velasquez

In Spoiler Talk, we recently saw two clues in different games that featured Spanish artist Diego Velasquez (1599-1660).

Since all the old clues in Spoiler Talk are picked at random, that seemed fairly odd unless Diego is a Jeopardy! favorite, kinda like, you know, Walt Whitman is in the literary categories. Curiosity demanded a search on J-Archive. Astonishingly enough, there are only 7 clues on there about Diego Velasquez. He hasn’t shown up on the Jeopardy! board in 8 years.

12/27/2006 ARTISTS $2000: This Spaniard’s “Las Meninas” shows the Infanta Margareta Teresa with her retinue of ladies & dwarfs
6/13/2005 “VE” DAY $2000: It’s his 17th century work seen here
3/23/2004 ART & ARTISTS $1600: For 37 years, 1623 to 1660, he painted Philip IV of Spain & his family, court & jesters
10/22/2001 PAINTING & SCULPTURE $1000: Court painter to Philip IV, he depicted the Spanish royal family in his painting “Las Meninas”
6/19/1997 ARTISTS $800: He was 24 when he first painted Spain’s Philip IV who became his patron
*7/15/1996 ART & ARTISTS $800: This Spanish court artist’s 1620s painting “Los Borachos” or “The Drinkers” is in the Prado

He also was involved in one Final Jeopardy but just a detail from one of his paintings was shown and they had to know what museum it was in. Trebek identified the painter after two players picked the Louvre and one said the Amsterdam museum.

We’ve always been curious as to how and when they decide to drop someone or something from the clue catalog. Do they say, “oh, nobody will know that anymore?” Probably so on pop culture figures. Another court painter, Francisco Goya (1746-1828), was given as a response to some of Diego’s clues (and Velasquez was given as a response to some of his). Goya has gotten far more clue love and made it to Final Jeopardy 3x, the last time on 5/23/2013. We like this one. They all got Goya but two of them missed the Dutchman:

3/20/2009 ARTISTS: The 2 famous painters who share a March 30 birthday, one born in Spain in 1746, the other in Holland in 1853

So let’s watch out for Diego Velasquez. HE’S DUE FOR A CLUE! And let’s not get him mixed up with Goya:

Velasquez, 17th century, Philip IV
Goya, 18-19th century, Charles IV