The mysterious Las Meninas by Diego Velásquez

Completed in 1656, Diego Velásquez has created with Las Meninas an incomparable reproduction of space, light, cloth, people, dogs, and himself, all at work on a large canvas. The work is in fact an illusion of the artist creating an illusion. Part of the fascination with this great masterpiece is trying to figure out what it is exactly Velázquez is trying to represent on that canvas. Is it the king and queen, reflected in the mirror? Are they standing in the same position as us, the viewers? The more one studies the painting the more curious the effect and perhaps that is the intention. It is truly a meditation on art and reality.

This extraordinary still life of seventeenth century life in the Spanish royal court continues to be studied today by students, critics and scholars alike. But deciphering the true meaning of Las Meninas appears to be impossible. So many questions are left unanswered that the painting allows each viewer to draw his or her own conclusions, and draw your own conclusions you must.

In the same way that people lap up celebrity magazines today, human nature has always had a tendency to be curious Valásquez catered to this with his look inside the royal’s private quarters. Up until then, royal portraiture tended to follow stiff formalities as well, not so with this work. Velázquez truly broke with tradition to let the world see a bit of normal life in the palace of Philip IV of Spain, giving the viewer the opportunity to humanize the royals.

Centered around La Infanta Margarita, who is surrounded by her ladies in waiting, the family dog and two dwarves, Velázquez made sure that those people kept behind the scenes were also worthy of being painted. And to the left of Margarita we find Velázquez himself, paintbrush and easel in hand, poised in front of an enormous canvas. By including himself in the main part of the painting Velázquez is asserting his own position as an artist. But the scene does not stop there. The most peculiar part of the painting is the fact that Velázquez has chosen to include the King and Queen only by their hazy reflections in the mirror which hangs on the back wall and his purposeful elusiveness cannot fail to raise many questions.

If Velázquez is painting the young princess, why is he doing so from behind? Perhaps Velázquez is actually painting King Philip IV and his wife as they stand before him and Margarita is simply there to observe her parents. Or was Velázquez using his status as Palace Chamberlain to play power games by placing himself at the forefront of the pictures and the royals as a mere reflection? Or was he thinking of elevating the status of the viewer to the position of the king?

What ever the reasons, everyone who admires Las Meninas must make that choice for themselves and this is probably how Velázquez intended his painting to be interpreted. And this is what makes it such an enduring and intriguing piece of art. You can see Las Meninas at Madrid’s famous Museo del Prado.

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