Las Meninas

Title

This painting depicts the Infanta Margarita, eldest daughter of the new queen, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, her dwarf, and her mastiff, while Velázquez is seen standing at his easel.

This is a composition of enormous representational impact. The Infanta Margarita stands proudly amongst her maids of honour, with a dwarf to the right. Although she is the smallest, she is clearly the central figure; one of her maids is kneeling before her, and the other leaning towards her, so that the standing Infanta, with her broad hooped skirt, becomes the fulcrum of the movement. The dwarf, about the same size as the Infanta, is so ugly that Margarita appears delicate, fragile and precious in comparison. we have of Velázquez. Above the head of the Infanta, we see the ruling couple reflected in the mirror.

The spatial structure and positioning of the figures is such that the group of maids around the Infanta appears to be standing on "our" side, opposite Philip and his wife. Not only is the "performance" for their benefit, but the attention of the painter is also concentrated on them, for he appears to be working on their portrait. Although they can only be seen in the mirror reflection, the king and queen are the actual focus of the painting towards which everything else is directed. As spectators, we realize that we are excluded from the scene, for in our place stands the ruling couple. What seems at first glance to be an "open" painting proves to be completely hermetic - a statement further intensified by the fact that the painting in front of Velázquez is completely hidden from our view.

"Las Meninas" was the picture of which Luca Giordano said that it was the "theology of painting," another way of expressing the opinion of Sir Thomas Lawrence, that this work is the philosophy of art, so true is it in rendering the desired effect. The story is told that the king painted the red cross of Santiago on the breast of the painter, as it appears to-day on the canvas.

The immensely famous 20th Century artist and inventor of Cubism, Pablo Picasso, created his own interpretation of Las Meninas in 1957, which is on display at the Picasso Museo in Barcelona, Spain.

Principally because of the inclusion of the artist in the painting, Michel Foucault identified this painting as inaugurating a new episteme for European thinking.

See also