Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez – 1656

Las Meninas[a] (pronounced [laz meˈninas]; Spanish for 'The Ladies-in-waiting') is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. The Las Meninas was a master piece when he was late in his life at the height of his powers. He was determined to put his entire skill, talent, intellect and experience into this painting. He was the court painter for the Spanish King Philip IV for more than 30 years. He was the favorite of Philip as he had painted his potrait many times advancing his rank all the way upto the Chamberlin of the palace, responsible for decorating this great Alcazar of Madrid with all its many art work. So for masterpiece he chooses to set the painting in the studio within the palace itself, the place he knew best. Its complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted. Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting.
Parameters that are improved in this work are - Shape Symmetry Visibility Illumination Intensity Space Utilization

Las Meninas – 1656 – Diego Velázquez

  • 1

    Give an effect of snapshot

    Goal-  Give a sense of spontaneity

    Solution - 6 Characters staring at something (us) while 3 others are yet to notice

  • 2

    Group of 2 and 3

    Goal-  Make the princess standout in the scene.

    Solution - Velazquez creates a pair of two  (also male and female pairs) that makes the princess standout. From the right, we have the male and female dwarf, 2 chaperones, curtsying maid and the palace official in the back corridor, the king and the queen in the mirror, Velazquez and the maid kneeling to offer the princess a drink.  There is also group of threes, the princess with her 2 maids, the dog and the 2 dwarf, the 3 palace officials

  • 3

    Horizontal plane

    Goal-  Draw the entirety of the paintings 3 dimensional space

    Solution - The last 6 characters in the back are placed on the same horizontal plane. Our eyes is drawn from Velazquez in the foreground to the palace official as they are in similar black dress and stand in line with the 2 doorways on the back walls. The chaperones in the middle ground link to the king and the queen in the background which simultaneously brings the z-axis all the way forward beyond the picture itself intimating the depth that we cant see.

  • 4

    The two and three groups

    Goal-  Have a motif of two's and three through the paining

    Solution - Using two giant canvas on the top of the back wall above two door frames and a central mirror. Of the bottom triple (door frame and the mirror) the right frames correspond with  two maids and the princess.

  • 5

    Central focus points

    Goal-Make the painting ambiguous making the viewer waver between multiple centers of weight 

    Solution - Have 3 focus points unlike Davinci's last supper where all the elements points to Christ. The elements having maximum light are the 1) Princess 2)The mirror and the 3) Palace official which also becomes a group of 3 as the mirror and the door are in the same horizontal frame.

  • 6

    Theme of the Painting

    Goal-    He wanted this painting to be about painting itself. During Velasquez's time painting didn’t hold the same kind of noble place as poetry and music.  He wanted this painting to be a vigorous argument for the virtue of paining weather it comes form heave or lifelong practice of craft 

    Solution - A closer look for the image reveals that the vanishing point of this painting is not the mirror but the lighted doorway to the right. So the mirror doesn't  directly reflect back at us but instead the canvas that Velasquez is working on.

    The two paintings on the upper half are the copies of Peter Paul Rubens who was a hero to Velasquez. Both tell similar stories from Ovid's Metamorphosis. In the right mortal Marsyas challenges the god Apollo to a flute playing contest and in the left god Athena challenges Arachne to a weaving contest. These are two contest between mortals and gods on the subject of arts and in the end both are punished by their gods for failing to recognize the divine source of artistic endeavor.