‘Velásquez as a point of reference has always been the testing ground for Valdés' paraphrases. Each new research effort has been carried out on the fallow land of Velásquez's figures...Valdés falls back on Velásquez's work time and again to move forward with his own imagery’ (Kosma de Barañano, exh. cat., Ministère de Culture, Las Tres Dimensiones en Valdés, Paris, 2005, p. 15).