A Cultured Mind: Las Meninas

Las Meninas (The Family of Felipe IV) is Spanish for The Maids of Honor. This painting was painted in 1656 by Diego Valazquez (1599-1660), a Spanish portrait artist during the Baroque period. The painting itself is oil on canvas and is a grand 318 x 276 cm. The painting was damaged during a fire in 1734. Parts of it were repainted including all of the Infanta's left cheek.

This painting is complex with detail and has been interpreted in many ways by many art critics. When one first views the painting, they can't help but notice the many paintings cluttering the walls and the numerous subjects in the room, which is a hall of Madrid's Alcazar Palace.

The main subject, Infanta Margarita, the five year old daughter of Felipe IV, is positioned near the center in a white dress. To either side of her are her meninas. Isabel de Velasco is in the middle of curtsying to the girl, and Maria Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor is kneeling, offering her a drink on a golden platter. The girl is accepting because her hand is placed on the red cup. Then off to the right are two juxtaposed dwarfs. I don't know if it was common practice for royalty to house midgets, but they definitely threw me off and made the mysterious painting even more enigmatic. Regardless, the larger female dwarf was a German named Maribarbola, and the smaller dwarf to the right is the Italian Nicolas Pertusato. He is nudging the dog with his foot, trying to rouse him. The two people further behind are the princess's chaperone, Marcela de Ulloa, and the princess's bodyguard whose name is unknown. Beyond the door frame is Don Jose Nieto Velazquez, the queen's chamberlain, posing on a staircase with his feet on different steps.

The last three subjects in the painting are where the different interpretations of the painting come in. To the left is a self portrait of Valazquez painting on a giant canvas. His magnificent moustache is flowing wildly on his face, he is holding paint brushes and a palette, and he has a red cross of the Order of Santiago across his chest. He added this cross to the painting at least three years later when he received it. On the back wall is a mirror. It is assumed to be a mirror because it looks more reflective than the other canvases on the wall. In the reflection is King Philip IV and Queen Mariana de Austria. The discrepancy is between what Valazquez is painting and what the viewers' perspective is. The first theory is that Valazquez is painting the King and Queen, and the mirror is reflecting that image back to the viewer, and therefore our perspective can be our own or the King and Queens. The other theory is that Valazquez is painting the painting we are viewing, and that we are viewing this scene from the perspective of the King and Queen, and our own image is being reflected back at us. There are also many other philosophical theories including different versions and combinations of the above theories. Some don't believe that the object on the back wall is a mirror, but another portrait.

Now that we've covered the subjects in the painting, we can move on to the paintings in the painting. The only two fairly clear paintings are the large two on the back wall. They are thought to be oil sketches by Peter Paul Rubens. The one on the left being Minerva Punishing Arachne and the one on the right being Apollo’s Victory over Marsyas.