Las Meninas

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Las Meninas ( pronounced [las me'ninas] ; Spanish for The Ladies-in-waiting ) is a 1656 painting at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego VelÃÆ'¡zquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. A complex and mysterious composition raises the question of reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the audience and the figures depicted. Because of this complexity, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting.

The painting shows a large room at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents some of the most identifiable figures, the Spanish court, captured, according to some commentators, at certain moments as if in the footage. Some look out of the canvas toward the viewers, while others interact among themselves. Infanta Margaret Theresa was surrounded by a group of waiters, escorts, bodyguards, two dwarves and dogs. Right behind them, Velázquez describes himself working on a large canvas. Velázquez looks out, outside the drawing room to where the spectator painting will stand. In the background there is a mirror that reflects the upper body of the king and queen. They appear to be placed outside the drawing room in a position similar to the viewer, although some experts speculate that their image is a reflection of the Velázquez painting shown works.

Las Meninas has long been recognized as one of the most important paintings in the history of Western art. Baroque painter Luca Giordano says that it represents "painting theology" and in 1827 the president of the Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Thomas Lawrence described the work in a letter to his successor David Wilkie as "the real philosophy of art." More recently, it has been described as "the highest achievement of Velezquez, a highly self-conscious demonstration, calculated from what the painting can achieve, and perhaps the most comment ever made about the possibility of painting the horses".

Video Las Meninas

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Pengadilan Philip IV

In 17th century Spain, painters rarely enjoyed high social status. Painting is considered a craft, not an art such as poetry or music. Nevertheless, VelÃzzquez managed to rise to the court of Philip IV, and in February 1651 was appointed the palace treasurer (aposentador mayor del palacio). The post gave him status and material prizes, but his duty made heavy demands on time. For the remaining eight years of his life, he painted only a few works, mostly portraits of the royal family. When he painted Las Meninas, he had been with the royal family for 33 years.

The first wife of PhilipÃ, IV, Elizabeth of France, died in 1644; and their only son, Balthasar Charles, died two years later. Having no heir, Philip married Mariana of Austria in 1649, and Margaret Theresa (1651-1673) was their first child, and they were the only ones at the time of the painting. Subsequently, he had a short-lived brother Philip Prospero (1657-1661), and then Charles (1661-1700) arrived, who succeeded to ascend the throne as Charles II at the age of three. Velázquez painted portraits of Mariana and her children, and although Philip himself refused to be depicted in his old age he allowed VelÃzzzz to include them in Las Meninas. In the early 1650s he gave Velázquez Pieza Principal (the "main room") of the late Balthasar Charles residence, at that time serving as a palace museum, to be used as his studio. This is where Las Meninas is set. Philip has his own seat in the studio and often sits and watches VelÃzzquez at work. Though bounded by rigid etiquette, the art-loving king seems to have a close relationship with the painter. After Velzzzzz's death, Philip wrote, "I'm destroyed" on the edge of a memorandum about his successor's choice.

During the 1640s and 1650s, Velázquez served as a palace painter and curator of Philip's increasingly widespread European art collection. He seems to have been given extraordinary freedom in his role. She oversees the decor and interior design of the rooms that hold the most valuable paintings, adding mirrors, sculptures, and carpets. He is also responsible for the source, attribution, hanging and inventory of many paintings of Spanish kings. In the early 1650s, VelÃÆ'¡zquez was widely respected in Spain as a connoisseur. Most of the current Prado collections - including the works of Titian, Raphael, and Rubens - were obtained and collected under the curator Velázquez.

Provenance and condition

The painting is mentioned in the earliest inventory as La Familia ("Family"). The detailed explanation of Las Meninas, which provides the identification of several figures, was published by Antonio Palomino ("Giorgio Vasari of the Spanish Golden Era") in 1724. The examination under infrared light shows a slight pentimenti, that is, there is previous work traces that the artist himself later modified. For example, at first Velázquez's own head tended to the right rather than to his left.

The painting has been cut down on the left and right. It was damaged in a fire that destroyed Alcázar in 1734, and was restored by the court painter Juan GarcÃÆ'a de Miranda (1677-1749). The left cheek from Infanta is almost completely repainted to compensate for a substantial loss of pigment. After being rescued from the fire, the painting was inventoried as part of the royal collection in 1747-48, and Infanta was incorrectly identified as Maria Theresa, Margaret Theresa's older half-brother, a recurring error when the painting was inventoried at the new Imperial Palace of Madrid in 1772 The inventory of 1794 was returned to the previous version of the title, Philip's Family, IV , repeated in 1814 records. The painting entered the Museo del Prado collection in its foundation in 1819. In 1843, the Prado catalog registered the work for the first time as Las Meninas .

In recent years, the image has lost its texture and color. Due to exposure to pollution and crowds of visitors, the contrasting contrast between the blue and white pigments in costume meninas has faded. It was last cleaned in 1984 under the supervision of American conservator John Brealey, to remove the "yellow veil" from the dust that had congregated since the previous restoration of the 19th century. Cleaning is provoked, according to art historian Federico Zeri, "angry protests, not because the picture has been corrupted in any way, but because it looks different". However, in the opinion of LÃÆ'³pez-Rey, "the restoration is flawless". Due to its size, importance, and value, the painting was not lent to the exhibition.

Painting materials

A thorough technical investigation including Las Meninas pigment analysis was conducted around 1981 at the Museo Prado. The analysis reveals the usual pigments of the baroque period often used by Velázquez in other paintings. The main pigments used for this painting are pale white, azurite (for kneeling knee skirt), vermilion and red lake, ochres and black carbon.

Maps Las Meninas

Description

Subject

Las Meninas is set in the Velázquez studio at the Alcáz palace in PhilipÃ, IV in Madrid. The high ceiling space is presented, in the words of Silvio Gaggi, as "a simple box that can be divided into a perspective grid with a single vanishing point". In the center of the foreground stands Infanta Margaret TheresaÃ, (1). The five-year-old Infanta, who later married the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, is currently the only only child of Philip and Mariana alive. He is attended by two waitresses, or ministers : doÃÆ'  ± an Isabel de Velasco (2), who is ready to salute the princess, and doÃÆ'  ± a MarÃÆ'a Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayorà ¢ ( 3), who kneels before Margaret Theresa, offers a drink from a red cup, or bÃÆ'ºcaro , which she holds on a gold tray. To the right of the Infanta are two dwarfs: German achondroplastic, Maribarbola (4) (Maria Barbola), and Italian, Nicolas Pertusato (5), who playfully tries to wake the sleepy mastiff with his feet. The dog is allegedly descended from two mastiffs from Lyme Hall in Cheshire, awarded to Phillip III in 1604 by James I of England. Behind them stands doÃÆ'  ± Marcela de UlloaÃ, (6), the companion of the princess, wearing grief and talking to the unknown bodyguard (or guardadamas) Ã, (7).

Back and on the right stand Don JosÃÆ'Â © Nieto VelázquezÃ, (8) - the queen's treasurer during the 1650s, and the head of a working royal carpet - which may have been a relative of the artist. Nieto is shown stopping, with his right knee bent and his legs on different steps. When art critic Harriet Stone observes, it is uncertain whether he "came or went". He is shown in a silhouette and appears to open a curtain on a short staircase, with a wall or empty space behind him. Both the backlight and the open door reveal the space behind: in the words of the Leppanen Analytical art historian, they entice "our eyes inevitably into the depths". The reflection of the royal couple pushed in the opposite direction, advancing into the drawing room. The point of disappearance of perspective is on the threshold, as can be shown by expanding the line of walls and ceilings on the right. Nieto is only seen by kings and queens, who share viewers' point of view, and not by numbers in the foreground. In the footnote of Joel Snyder's article, the authors acknowledge that Nieto is the queen's maid and must be on hand to open and close the door for her. Snyder points out that Nieto appears in the doorway so the king and queen can leave. In the context of the painting, Snyder argues that the scene is the end of the royal couple sitting for Velázquez and they are preparing to go out, explaining that "why the infant on the right side of Infanta began to freeze."

Velázquez himself (9) is pictured to the left of the scene, looking out over a large canvas supported by the horses. In his chest there was a red cross from the Order of Santiago, which he did not receive until 1659, three years after the painting was finished. According to Palomino, Philip ordered this to be added after VelÃzzquez's death, "and some say that His Holiness himself painted it." From the belt the painter hangs the symbolic key from his court office.

The mirror on the back wall reflects the upper body and the heads of two figures identified from other paintings, and by Palomino, as King Philip IV (10) and Queen Mariana (11). The most common assumption is that reflection shows the pair in the pose they hold for VelÃzzquez as he painted it, while their daughters watched; and that the painting shows their view of the scene.

Of the nine figures depicted, five are seen directly from the royal couple or the audience. Their views, along with the reflection of kings and queens, confirm the presence of a royal couple outside the painted space. Or, art historians H. W. Janson and Joel Snyder suggest that the image of the king and queen is a reflection of the Velázquez canvas, the obscured front of the viewer. Other authors say the Velázquez canvas is a remarkably large painting for portraits by VelÃzzquez, and is about the same size as Las Meninas . Las Meninas contains the only double portrait of a royal couple painted by VelÃzzquez.

The picture's point of view is roughly from the royal pairs, although this has been much debated. Many critics assume that the scene is seen by kings and queens as they pose for multiple portraits, while Infanta and his friends are present just to make the process more fun. Ernst Gombrich suggested that the picture might be a nanny's idea:

"Perhaps the princess was taken to the kingdom to eliminate boredom and the King or Queen told Velazquez that here is a worthy subject to brush her. The words spoken by the ruler are always treated as an order and so we may owe this work in hopes which passed only that Velazquez was able to turn into reality. "

There is no single theory that finds universal agreement. Leo Steinberg points out that the King and the Queen are to the left of the observer and the shadows in the mirror are canvas paintings, portraits of kings and queens. Others speculate that Velázquez represents himself painting Infanta Margaret Theresa.

The back wall of the room, which is in the shadows, is hung with rows of paintings, including one of a series of scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses by Peter Paul Rubens, and copies, by the son of Velázquez-in-law and assistant principal Juan del Mazo, the works of Jacob Jordaens. These paintings are displayed in exact positions recorded in the inventory taken around this time. The wall on the right is hung with a grid of eight smaller paintings, seen mainly as a frame because of their viewpoints from the viewer. They can be identified from inventory as copies of Mazo over paintings from the Rubens Ovid series, although only two subjects can be seen.

The paintings on the back wall are recognized as representing Minerva Punishing Arachne and Apollo's Victory Over Marsyas. Both stories involve Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom and the patron of art. These two legends are human stories that challenge gods and terrible consequences. A cleric shows that the legend that dealt with two women, Minerva and Arachne, was on the same side of the mirror as the queen's reflection while the male legend was at the side of the king.

Composition

The painted surface is divided into vertical and seventh horizontal quarters; The grid is used to manage complex character groupings, and is a common tool at the time. Velázquez presents nine numbers - eleven if the reflected images of the king and queen are inserted - but they occupy only the bottom half of the canvas.

According to LÃÆ'³pez-Rey, the painting has three focal points: Infanta Margaret Theresa, self-portrait and half-length reflecting the image of King Philip IV and Queen Mariana. In 1960, art historian Kenneth Clark stated that the success of the composition was the first and foremost result of accurate light and shadow handling:

Each focal point involves us in a new set of relationships; and to paint complex groups such as Meninas, the painter must bring in his head a consistent relationship that he can apply. He may use all kinds of devices to help him do this - perspective is one of them - but ultimately the truth about a complete visual impression depends on one thing, the truth of the tone. Drawing may be summary, the color is dull, but if the tone connection is true, the image will continue.

However, the focal point of the painting is widely disputed. Leo Steinberg argued that the orthogonal in the work was deliberately disguised so that the center of the image shifted. Similar to Lopez-Rey, he described the three focuses. The man on the doorstep, however, is the missing point. More specifically, the curve of his arm is where the window orthogonism and the ceiling lights meet.

The depth and dimensions are given by the use of a linear perspective, by overlapping of the shape layer, and in particular, as Clark declares, through the use of a tone. This composition element operates in the image in several ways. First, there is a natural light display in the room painted and outside. The drawing space in the center and foreground is lit from two sources: by flickering light from the open door, and by the large flow coming through the window to the right. 20th-century French philosopher and cultural critic Michel Foucault observes that the light from the windows illuminates both the studio's front and the unrepresented area in front of it, where kings, queens, and spectators are perceived to be. For JosÃÆ'Â © Ortega y Gasset, the light divides the landscape into three distinct sections, with the foreground and the background plane illuminated strongly, among which the dark intermediate space includes a silhouette figure.

Velázquez uses this light not only to increase the volume and definition to each shape but also to determine the focal point of the painting. As the light flows from the right, it glints in the braid and gold hair of the female dwarf, closest to the light source. But because his face changed from the light, and in the shadows, the tone of his voice did not make him a particular concern. Similarly, light glances sideways on the lady-in-waiting cheek nearby, but not on the features of his face. Most of her brightly colored dresses were dimmed by shadows. Infanta, however, stood in full lighting, and with her face facing the light source, though her gaze did not. Her face is framed by her pale hair color, making her separate from the others in the picture. Light modeled the shape-shaped volumetric geometry, defining the conical nature of the small body attached to the rigid bodice and the rigid bodice, and the protruding skirt extends around it like an oval candy box, casting its own shadows which, by sharp contrast with the bright brocade, both emphasize and place small figure as the main point of attention.

Velázquez further emphasizes Infanta with the placement and description of his server, which he timpani each other: left and right, before and behind Infanta. The assistant on the left faces light, his profile and his brightly armed arms create a diagonal. His opponent's number creates a broader but less clear reflection of his attention, making diagonal spaces between them, where their payload is protected.

The internal diagonal further passes through the space occupied by Infanta. There is a similar relationship between the female dwarf and the Velázquez figure itself, both looking towards the viewer from the same angle, creating visual tension. Velázquez's face was dimly lit by reflected light, not directly. For this reason, its features, though not sharply defined, are more visible than dwarfs that are much closer to the light source. The total face appearance, full on the viewer, attracts attention, and marked importance, tonally, by the contrasting frame of dark hair, light in hand and brush, and a light triangle placed skillfully on the artist's arm, pointing directly to the face.

From the figure of the artist, the viewer's eyes jump again diagonally into the picture space. Another man stands up, echoes and opposes the artist's form, outside and not inside, made clearly but barely identifiable by light and shadow. Placement of areas such as strong tone contrast just behind the picture space is a bold composition tactic. The forms of bright light are similar to the irregular shapes of light from the foreground of the Maid of Honor, but the clear door frames repeat the mirror border.

The mirror is a perfectly pale rectangle defined in a large black rectangle. A clear geometric shape, like a glowing face, attracts the viewer's attention more than a broken geometric shape like a door, or a shaded or tilted face like a dwarf in the foreground or from a man in the background. The viewer can not distinguish the features of the king and queen, but in the slant of the mirror's surface sheen, the luminous oval clearly changes directly to the viewer. Jonathan Miller points out that apart from "adding suggestive rays on the beveled edge, the most important way the mirror reveals its identity is to reveal an image whose brightness is so inconsistent with the dimming of the surrounding wall that can only be borrowed, by reflection, of a very bright King and Queen".

As honorary servants reflected in each other, so did kings and queens having their double in the painting, in the dim form of companions and carers, the two who serve and care for their daughter. The positioning of these numbers forms a pattern, one man, one partner, one man, a couple, and while the outsider is closer to the viewer than the other, they all occupy the same horizontal band on the surface of the image.

Adding to the complexity of the inside of the image and creating further visual interaction is the male dwarf in the foreground, who raises his hands echoing the movement of figures in the background, while his pleasant demeanor, and the disruption of the main act, contrasts strongly with it. His pose informality, his shadow profile, and his dark hair all serve to make it a mirror image for infanta officers kneeling. However, the painter has made it advance from the light flowing through the window, and minimizes the tone contrast in this foreground image.

Apart from certain spatial ambiguities, this is the most meticulous architectural space, and the only one where the ceiling is shown. According to LÃÆ'³pez-Rey, there is no other composition that performs VelÃzzquez that dramatically directs the eye to areas beyond the view of the observer: both the canvas he sees painting, and the space beyond the frame where the king and queen stand can only be imagined.. The dark ceiling tilt, the rear of the Velázquez canvas, and the strict geometry of the framed paintings contrast with the animated foreground entourage, illuminated with brilliant and luxurious light. Stone wrote:

We can not take all the paintings in one glance. Not only is the proportion of the size of the painting obscuring such appreciation, but also the fact that the heads of the characters change in different directions mean our view is deflected. The painting communicates through images that, in order to be understood, must be consecutively considered, one by one, in an ongoing historical context. It is a history that is still not framed, even in this painting consists of frames in a frame.

According to Kahr, the composition could be influenced by traditional Dutch Gallery Images such as those of Frans Francken Muda, Willem van Haecht or David Teniers the Younger. The work of Teniers is owned by Philip IV and will be known by VelÃÆ'¡zquez. Like Las Meninas , they often describe official visits by collectors or important authorities, common occurrences, and "show rooms with a series of windows dominating one side of the wall and painting hanging between windows and also on other walls". The Portrait Gallery is also used to glorify the artist as well as the royalty or higher class members, as Velezzquez might have been intent with this work.

Mirror and reflection

The spatial structure and mirror reflection position in such a way that Philip IV and Mariana appear to stand at the side of the pictorial space, facing Infanta and his entourage. According to Janson, not only the collection of numbers in the foreground for the benefit of Philip and Mariana, but the attention of the painter concentrated on the couple, because he seems to work on their portrait. Although they can only be seen in reflection mirrors, their image far occupies a central position on the canvas, in terms of social hierarchy and composition. As a spectator, our position in relation to the painting is uncertain. It has been debated whether the ruling couple stood next to the audience or have replaced the viewer, who saw the scene through their eyes. Lending weight to the last idea is the gaze of three figures - Velázquez, Infanta, and Maribarbola - who seem to be staring directly at the viewers.

The mirror on the back wall shows what does not exist: the king and the queen, and in the words of Harriet Stone, "the generation of viewers who regarded the place of the couple before the painting". Writing in 1980, critics Snyder and Cohn observed:

VelÃÆ'¡zquez wants a mirror to rely on a painted canvas that can be used for drawing. Why does he want that? The glowing image in the mirror appears to reflect the king and queen itself, but it is more than this: mirror beyond nature. Mirror images are just reflections. Reflection of what? From the real thing - the art of Velázquez. In the presence of a divinely ordained monarchy... Velázquez rejoiced in his art and advised Philip and Mary not to seek revelation of their image in the natural reflection of visible glass but in the sharp vision of their master painter. In the presence of VelÃzzquez, the mirror image is a poor imitation of the real.

In Las Meninas, kings and queens are supposed to be "outside" paintings, but their shadows in the back wall mirror also put them "inside" the picture space.

Snyder proposes it is a "mirror of grandeur" or an allusion to a mirror for a prince. While it is a literal reflection of kings and queens, Snyder writes "it is the image of the exemplary king, the reflection of the ideal character." Then he focuses his attention on the princess, writing that Velázquez's portrait is "the equivalent of painting a guide for princess education - mirror the princess "

The painting was probably influenced by Jan van Eyck Arnolfini Portrait in 1434. At that time, van Eyck paintings hung in the palace of Philip, and must have been familiar with VelÃzzquez. The Arnolfini Portrait also has a mirror positioned behind the drawing room, which reflects two figures that will have the same angle of view as the Velázquez painters; they are too small to be identified, but have speculated that one can be intended as the artist himself, even though he is not shown in his painting act. According to Lucien DÃÆ'¤llenbach:

The mirror [in Las Meninas ] faces the observer as in Van Eyck's painting. But here the procedure is more realistic to the extent that the mirror "rear glass" where the royal couple appears is no longer convex but flat. While the reflection in the Flemish painting compressed objects and characters in space were condensed and altered by a mirror curve, that Velázquez refused to play with the laws of perspective: it projected onto the perfectly double canvas of the king and the queen positioned in front of the painting. In addition, in showing the painted painters, and also, through the mediation of the mirror, the observing figure, the painter achieves reciprocal gazes that make the interior oscillate with the exterior and which causes the image to be "emerging from the frame" at the same time inviting visitors to enter the painting.

Jonathan Miller asks: "What should we make of the blurry features of the royal couple? It seems to have nothing to do with imperfect optics of the mirror, which, in fact, has featured the image of a focused King and Queen." He notes that "in addition to the mirror represented , he teases imply the unrepresented, without which it is difficult to imagine how he can show himself painting the image we now see".

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Interpretation

Elusiveness Las Meninas , according to Dawson Carr, "shows that art, and life, are illusions". The relationship between illusion and reality is a major concern in Spanish culture during the 17th century, especially in Don Quixote, Spain's most famous Baroque literary work. In this case, the CalderÃÆ'³n de la Barça Life i a Dream game is generally seen as a literary equivalent of VelÃÆ'¡zquez:

Jon Manchip White notes that the painting can be seen as the rÃÆ'Ã… © sumÃÆ'Â © of the entire life and career of VelÃzzquez, as well as his art summary until then. He placed a self-portrait in a room in a royal court surrounded by a collection of nobles, palaces, and fine objects representing his life in court. Art historian Svetlana Alpers states that, by depicting artists working in noble and noble companies, Velázquez claims high status for artists and art, and in particular to suggest that painting is liberal rather than mechanical art. This difference was a point of controversy at the time. That will be significant for VelÃzzquez, because the rules of the Santiago Order exclude those whose work is mechanical. Kahr insisted that this was the best way for VelÃzzquez to show that he was "not a craftsman or merchant, but a court official". Furthermore, this is a way to prove himself worthy of being accepted by the royal family.

Michel Foucault devotes the opening chapter The Order of Things (1966) to Las Meninas analysis. Foucault describes the painting with meticulous detail, but in a language "not prescribed by, or filtered through various texts of art-history inquiry". Foucault views the painting regardless of the subject matter, or the artist's biography, technical ability, source and influence, social context, or relationship with his patrons. Instead, he analyzed his intelligence, highlighting the complex network of visual relationships between painters, subject models, and audiences:

We were looking at the picture where the painter in turn looked at us. A mere confrontation, eyes staring at each other, seemed instantly overlapping each other as they crossed over. But this thin line of mutual visibility involves a complex network of uncertainties, exchanges, and deceptions. The painter turns his eyes to us just as long as we happen to occupy the same position with the subject.

For Foucault, Las Meninas illustrates the first signs of a new episteme , or way of thinking. It represents the midpoint between what he sees as two "great discontinuities" in European, classical and modern thought: "There may be, in this painting by VelÃzzquez, such representations are Classical representations, and the definitions of space open to us. representation, freed eventually from the inhibiting relation, can offer itself as a representation in its pure form. "

Now he (the painter) can be seen, caught in a moment of silence, at the center of his neutral oscillation. His dark body and bright face were halfway between the visible and the invisible: emerging from the canvas outside our view, he moved into our gaze; but when, for a moment, he stepped to the right, pushed himself out of our sight, he would stand right in front of the canvas he had painted; he will enter the area where his painting, which is neglected for a moment, will, for him, become visible once again, free of shadow and free from reluctance. It is as if the painter can not at the same time be seen in the image in which he is represented and also see that where he represents something. "

In the conclusion The Order of Things Foucault explains why he conducts forensic analysis like Las Meninas :

let us, if we can, search for the previously existing law of the interaction [ie the law of representation] in Las Meninas's painting... In Classical thinking, the person who represents who is, and who represents himself in it. , acknowledging himself here as an image or reflection, he who ties all the fabric of 'representation in the form of drawings or tables' - he is never found on the table itself. Before the end of the 18th century, humans did not exist - more than potential life, labor fertility, or historical density of language. He was a fairly new creature, a knowledge made with his own hands less than two hundred years ago: but he had grown old so quickly that it was just too easy to imagine that he had waited for thousands of years in the dark for the moment of illumination in where he will eventually be known.

Foucault's analysis of Las Meninas, although at one level of contribution to the history of art, is more about epistemology, in particular the 'cognitive status of modern human sciences', based on the possibility, suggested by Ludwig Wittgenstein, that the image is model of reality .

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Las Meninas as the culmination of the theme in VelÃÆ'¡zquez

Many aspects of Las Meninas relate to previous works by VelÃÆ'¡zquez in which he plays with representational conventions. In Rokeby Venus - the only surviving one - the subject's face is visible, blurting outside of any realism, in the mirror. The corner of the mirror is such that although "it is often described as seeing itself, [he] is more confusing seeing us". At the beginning of Christ in the House of Martha and Mary in 1618, Christ and his companions were only seen through the serving hatch into a room at the back, according to the National Gallery (London), which is clear that this was an intention, even before the restoration of many art historians regard this scene as a painting hanging on the wall in the main scene, or reflection in the mirror, and the debate continues. The dress worn in the two scenes is also different: the main scene is in contemporary attire, while the scene with Christ uses a conventional iconographic biblical outfit. This was also a feature of Los Borrachos in 1629, in which contemporary farmers accompanied the god Bacchus and his companions, who had their conventional clothing outfit. In this case, as in some of the early bodegones, the numbers look directly at the audience as if looking for a reaction.

In Las Hilanderas, probably painted a year after Las Meninas, two different scenes from Ovid are shown: one in contemporary outfits in the foreground, and the other partially in antique clothing, playing before rug on the back wall of the room behind the first. According to critic Sira Dambe, "aspects of representation and strength are discussed in this painting in a way closely related to their treatment at Las Meninas." In a series of late portraits of the 1630s and 1640s - all now in the Prado - Velázquez depicts clowns and other members of the royal family posing as gods, heroes, and philosophers; the point is certainly some comics, at least for those who know, but in a very ambiguous way.

Velázquez portraits of the royal family themselves until then were immediate, if often direct and very complicated in expression. On the other hand, the portrait of his kingdom, designed to be seen in the vast spaces of the palace, featured stronger than his other works, the famous bravura handling: "The VelÃzzquez paintwork is very free, and as one of the approaches > Las Meninas there is a point where the numbers suddenly dissolve into stains and patches of paint.The long-handled brush that he uses allows him to stand up and assess his total effect. "

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Influence

In 1692, Neapolitan painter Luca Giordano became one of the few people allowed to see paintings held in Philip IV's private apartment, and was greatly impressed by Las Meninas. Giordano described the work as "painting theology", and was inspired to paint A Homage to VelÃÆ'¡zquez (National Gallery, London). At the beginning of the 18th century, its oeuvre gained international recognition, and then in the 14th century British collectors ventured into Spain to seek acquisitions. Due to the popularity of Italian art at its peak among British connoisseurs, they concentrate on paintings that exhibit a clear Italian influence, largely ignoring others like Las Meninas.

The almost immediate effect can be seen in two portraits by Mazo about the subject depicted in Las Meninas, which in some ways reverses the motif of the painting. Ten years later, in 1666, Mazo painted Infanta Margaret Theresa, who was then 15 years old and was about to leave Madrid to marry the Holy Roman Emperor. In the background are the numbers on the two doors that are receding, one of which is the new King Charles (Margaret Theresa's brother), and the other Maribarball dwarf. A portrait of Queen Marion's widowed Mazo again shows, through a door at Alcázar, the young king with a dwarf, possibly including Maribarbola, and the waiter offering the drink to him. Mazo's painting of the Artist Family also shows compositions similar to Las Meninas .

Francisco Goya carved the print of Las Meninas in 1778, and then used the Velázquez painting as a model for his Charles IV Spanish and His Family . As in Las Meninas, the royal family in Goya's work apparently visited the artist's studio. In both paintings, the artist is shown working on a canvas, only the back of which is visible. Goya, however, replaced the atmospheric and warm perspectives of Las Meninas with what Pierre Gassier calls a "close suffocation". The Goya royal family is presented to a "public-facing stage, while in the shadow of the painters' wings, with a grim smile, pointing and saying: 'Look at them and decide for yourself!'"

The 19th century British art collector, William John Bankes, traveled to Spain during the War of the Peninsula (1808-1814) and obtained a copy of Las Meninas painted by Mazo, which he believed to be a sketch of original preparation oil by Velázquez - although Velázquez usually does not paint studies. Bankes described his purchase as "the glory of my collection", noting that he has "long been in agreement for it and is obliged to pay a high price". The copy was admired throughout the 19th century in England, and now in Kingston Lacy. Recently there are suggestions that may be by Velázquez after all (see below).

A new appreciation for the less-developed Italian paintings Velázquez evolved after 1819, when FerdinandÃ, VII opened a royal collection to the public. In 1879 John Singer Sargent painted a small-scale copy of Las Meninas, and in 1882 painted a tribute to the painting in his book The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit while Irish artist Sir John Lavery chose VelÃÆ'¡zquez as the base for his portrait of the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace, 1913. George, V, visited the Lavery studio during the painting, and, perhaps remembering the legend that Philip IV had daubed Santiago's knight cross on the VelÃzzquez figure, asked Lavery if he could contribute to the portrait with his own work. hand. According to Lavery, "Thinking that the royal blue color is the right color, I mix it on the palette, and take the brush that he [George V] applied to the Garter ribbon."

Between August and December 1957, Pablo Picasso painted a series of Las Meninas interpretations, and the numbers from him, which currently occupy Las Meninas' space from Museu Picasso in Barcelona, ​​Spain. Picasso does not vary the characters in the series, but most retain the naturalness of the scene; according to the museum, his works are "complete studies of form, rhythm, color and movement". The 1973 print by Richard Hamilton is called Picasso's Meninas drawn on Velázquez and Picasso. Photographer Joel-Peter Witkin was commissioned by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to create a work entitled Las Meninas, New Mexico (1987) that references VelÃzzquez paintings and other works by Spanish artists.

In 2004, video artist Eve Sussman filmed 89 Seconds at AlcÃÆ'¡zar , a high-definition video table that was inspired by Las Meninas . This work is a recreation from the moments before and directly follows about 89 seconds when the royal family and their nobles will come together in the exact configuration of the Velázquez paintings. Sussman has assembled a team of 35 people, including an architect, a set designer, choreographer, costume designer, actor, actress, and film crew.

The 2008 exhibition at Museu Picasso called "Forgetting Velázquez: Las Meninas " includes art that responds to Velázquez paintings by FermÃÆ'n Aguayo, Avigdor Arikha, Claudio Bravo, Juan CarreÃÆ'  ± o de Miranda, Michael Craig-Martin, Salvador DalÃÆ', Juan Downey, Goya, Hamilton, Mazo, Vik Muniz, Jorge Oteiza, Picasso, Antonio Saura, Franz von Stuck, Sussman, Manolo Valdà ©, and Witkin, among others. In 2009 Museo del Prado launched a project that facilitates access to Las Meninas in high-resolution mega via the Internet.

In 2010 and 2011 Felix de la Concha created Las Meninas Under An Artificial Light . This is a meticulous copy made in Iowa City, painted oil on 140 panels, which together reconstructs the true size of 318 x 276 cm paintings. To 30 cm on his left side was added to reflect his original loss of fire in the Alcazar in 1734. This gave a new reading for the composition. His work also highlights, with fragmentation, the findings of reproduction as a way of looking at artwork today. Las Meninas under artificial light has been on public display since 2018 at the NH Hotel in Zamora, Spain.

src: www.rapportoconfidenziale.org

The Kingston Lacy version

A smaller version of the Bank painting is now in the Kingston Lacy country house in Dorset. Some experts, including the former Curator of the Renaissance Department and Baroque Paintings at Museo del Prado and the current Director of the Flemish Tail Institute, in Madrid, Professor MatÃÆ'as DÃÆ'az PadrÃÆ'³n, suggest that this "model can be" painted by VelÃzzquez before the dependent work in the Museo del Prado, probably approved by the king. Contrary to this is the fact that the Kingston Lacy version represents the final state of Las Meninas , not the initial state of the painting expressed by radiography, indicating that the painting was painted after the work was completed, not before that..

The usual association since the 19th century is that the painting of Kingston Lacy is a copy by Juan Bautista MartÃÆ'nez del Mazo (c 1612-1667), son-in-law and follower near Velázquez. This version lost some of the details and nuances of the final work such as the reflection of the royal couple in the mirror. Its composition is almost identical to the original. Although the color is brighter, the light is less strong. A pencil line depicting Infanta's face, eyes, and hair is also visible.

Kingston Lacy's painting was formerly owned by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos and later by CeÃÆ'¡n BermÃÆ'ºdez, both of whom were Goya's portrait painted friends. The writings of BermÃÆ'ºdez on the painting were published posthumously in 1885.

Note

References

• Alpers, Svetlana (2005). The Vexations of art: VelÃÆ'¡zquez and others . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. ISBNÃ, 0-300-10825-7
• Brady, Xavier. VelÃÆ'¡zquez and English . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. ISBNÃ, 1-85709-303-8
• Carr, Dawson W. "Painting and reality: art and life Velázquez". Velázquez . Eds. Dawson W. Carr and Xavier Bray. National Gallery London, 2006. ISBNÃ, 1-85709-303-8
• Clark, Kenneth. Viewing Images . New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1960.
• Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: Archeology of Human Science . 1966. Paris: Gallimard, 1996. ISBNÃ, 0-679-75335-4
• Gaggi, Silvio. Modern/Postmodern: The Study of Art and Ideas of the 20th Century . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. ISBNÃ, 0-8122-1384-X
• Held, Jutta and Alex Potts. "How the Political Influence of Images Came From? Picasso Case Guernica ". Oxford Art Journal 11.1 (1988): 33-39.
• Honor, Hugh, and John Fleming. World Art History . London: Macmillan, 1982. ISBNÃ, 1-85669-451-8
• Janson, H. W. Art History: Main Visual Art Survey from Dawn History to Today . 2nd Edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1977.
• Kahr, Madlyn Millner. "Velazquez and Las Meninas". The Art Bulletin 57 (2) (June 1975): 225-246.
• LÃÆ'³pez-Rey, JosÃÆ'Â ©. VelÃÆ'¡zquez: Catalog RaisonnÃÆ' Â © . Taschen, 1999. ISBNÃ, 3-8228-8277-1
• MacLaren, Neil. Spanish School, National Gallery Catalog . Pdt. Allan Braham. National Gallery, London, 1970. ISBN: 0-947645-46-2
• Miller, Jonathan. On reflection . London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1998. ISBNÃ, 0-300-07713-0
• Museo del Prado. Museo del Prado, CatÃÆ'¡logo de las pinturas . Madrid: Ministerio de EducaciÃÆ'³n y Cultura, Madrid, 1996. ISBNÃ, 84-7483-410-4
• Ortega y Gasset, JosÃÆ'Â ©. Velázquez . New York: Random House, 1953.
• Russell, John. "Masterpieces stuck between two wars". The New York Times , September 3, 1989. Retrieved 15 December 2007.
• Snyder, Joel, and Ted Cohen. "Reflections on Las Meninas : missing paradox". Critical Investigation 7 (Winter 1980).
• Snyder, Joel. " Las Meninas and Price Mirror." Critical Investigation 11.4 (June 1985): 539-72.
• Steinberg, Leo. "Valazquez ' Las Meninas " October 19 (Winter 1981): 45-54.
• Stone, Harriet. Classic Model: Literature and Knowledge in 17th century France . Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996. ISBNÃ, 0-8014-3212-X
• White, Jon Manchip. Diego Velázquez: Painter and Punggawa . London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1969. ISBNÃ, 0-241-01624-X
• McKim-Smith, G., Andersen-Bergdoll, G., Newman, R. Checking Velazquez , Yale Press University, 1988

Further reading

• Brooke, Xanthe. "A masterpiece in waiting: response to 'Las Meninas' in the nineteenth century England", in Stratton-Pruitt, Suzanne, ed. VelÃÆ'¡zquez's 'Las Meninas' . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBNÃ, 0-521-80488-4.
• Liess, Reinhard. Im Spiegel der Meninas. Velásquez ÃÆ'¼ber sich und Rubens . Goettingen: V & amp; Runipress, 2003, ISBNÃ, 3-89971-101-7
• Searle, John R. " Las Meninas and the pictorial representation paradox". Critical Investigation 6 (Spring 1980).

External links

• Museo Picasso Las Meninas
• A Velczecekstual Study of Velázquez Las Meninas , 1996 by Joan CampÃÆ'ss Montaner, professor of Digital and Hypertext art from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
• La Kabala y Las Meninas (in Spanish)
• Las Meninas in the Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago
• Educational audio tour Las Meninas
• VelÃÆ'¡zquez , the exhibit catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), containing material on Las Meninas (see index)

Source of the article : Wikipedia