Have you ever wondered "what am I looking at?" when it came to the most famous paintings of our time. Well don't feel bad because I was in the same position a long time ago. Here are some little known facts and description of some of the most important piece. Who knows this may come in handy one day.
Las Meninas
This baroque painting is considered one of the most important of all-time. The central figure is the young Margarita Teresa of Spain but the painting also shows the artist himself, an image of the king and queen, several servants, two dwarfs, and a dog.
1# In the center of the foreground stands the Infanta Margaret Theresa (1). The five-year-old infant, who later married Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, was at this point Philip and Mariana's only surviving child.
2# She is attended by two ladies-in-waiting, or meninas: doña Isabel de Velasco (2), who is poised to curtsy to the princess, and doña María Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor
3# who kneels before Margaret Theresa, offering her a drink from a red cup, or búcaro, that she holds on a golden tray.
4# To the right of the Infant are two dwarfs: the achondroplastic German, Mari-barbola.
5# (Maria Barbola), and the Italian, Nicolas Pertusato (5), who playfully tries to rouse a sleepy mastiff with his foot. The dog is thought to be descended from two mastiffs from Lyme Hall in Cheshire, given to Phillip III in 1604 by James I of England.
6# Behind them stands doña Marcela de Ulloa (6), the princess's chaperone, dressed in mourning and talking to an unidentified bodyguard (or guardadamas)
7#To the rear and at right stands Don José Nieto Velázquez
8#the queen's chamberlain during the 1650s, and head of the royal tapestry works—who may have been a relative of the artist. Nieto is shown pausing, with his right knee bent and his feet on different steps. As the art critic Harriet Stone observes, it is uncertain whether he is "coming or going".
9# Velázquez himself (9) is pictured to the left of the scene, looking outward past a large canvas supported by an easel. On his chest is the red cross of the Order of Santiago, which he did not receive until 1659, three years after the painting was completed. According to Palomino, Philip ordered this to be added after Velázquez's death, "and some say that his Majesty himself painted it". From the painter's belt hang the symbolic keys of his court offices.
10# A mirror on the back wall reflects the upper bodies and heads of two figures identified from other paintings, and by Palomino, as King Philip IV and Queen Mariana.
11# The most common assumption is that the reflection shows the couple in the pose they are holding for Velázquez as he paints them, while their daughter watches; and that the painting therefore shows their view of the scene.
Only one person in the painting remains unidentified
On top of the king, queen, princess, and painter, the painting features the queen's chamberlain, Don José Nieto Velázquez (possibly related to the painter), who can be spotted on the stairs. The ladies in waiting doting on Margaret Theresa are doña María Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor (on the left) and doña Isabel de Velasco (on the right). Over the latter's shoulder peeks doña Marcela de Ulloa, the little princess's appointed chaperone, who converses with a bodyguard whose name is lost to history (but some modern scholars believe it might be Diego Ruiz de Azcona). In the right corner are Maria Barbola and Nicolas Pertusato, who are most often identified as the "dwarfs" at court. The mastiff's name is also unknown.
It's name was changed at some point
The first mention of the painting being called Las Meninas was found in a Museo del Prado 1843 catalogue. In a 1666 inventory, it was referred to as Retrato de la señora emperatriz con sus damas y una enana (Portrait of the Empress with her Ladies and a Dwarf). Then, after a fire in 1734, it was called La familia del Señor rey Phelipe Quarto and was referred to as La Familia until the final name change.
Interpretation
The elusiveness of Las Meninas, according to Dawson Carr, "suggests that art, and life, are an illusion". The relationship between illusion and reality were central concerns in Spanish culture during the 17th century, figuring largely in Don Quixote, the best-known work of Spanish Baroque literature. In this respect, Calderón de la Barca's play Life is a Dream is commonly seen as the literary equivalent of Velázquez's painting:
What is a life? A frenzy. What is life? A shadow, an illusion, and a sham. The greatest good is small; all life, it seems Is just a dream, and even dreams are dreams.
with that being said, I love this painting and the meaning behind it. I hope you enjoyed this small Article. Let me know what you think in the comments below! Thanks for reading!
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