Why is this painting so captivating James Earle and Christina Bozsik
On first glance, this painting might not
seem terribly special,
but it’s actually one of the most analyzed
paintings in the history of art.
It’s called “Las Meninas,”
or “The Maids of Honor,”
painted by Diego Velázquez in 1656,
and it depicts a scene in the life
of the Spanish Royal Court.
A well-dressed child princess refuses
a glass of water from a handmaid,
while a dwarf teases a dog.
A second dwarf stands next to them,
while the artist himself
pauses at his canvas.
Two more people whisper in the background,
while a third appears
to be exiting the room,
and why wouldn’t he when there seems
to be so little going on?
Even the dog looks bored.
But look more closely.
The two people reflected
in the blurry mirror at the back,
easily missed at first glance,
are none other than
King Philip IV and Queen Mariana,
seemingly changing the scene from a simple
depiction of court life
to that of a royal portrait.
And with this piece of information,
we can begin to understand far more
about the painting
and why it has captivated viewers
for centuries.
First, there’s the historical context.
When “Las Meninas” was painted
at the end of Philip’s reign,
the Spanish Empire
was in a period of decline,
having suffered defeat in
The Thirty Years War,
as well as economic
and political difficulties.
The King himself had also
suffered misfortune,
losing both his first wife and his only
heir to the throne before remarrying.
But the painting obscures their struggle
to provide food for their household.
Even the monarch’s advanced
age is concealed
through the blurring of the mirror.
What we do see in the geometric center
of the canvas,
brightly illuminated by the light
from the window,
in the Infanta Margarita Teresa,
the King’s only living legitimate child
at the time.
Her glowing and healthy appearance
is an idealized view of the struggling
empire’s future.
However, the Infanta is not the only
center of the painting.
Through the clever use of perspective,
as well as painting the work life-sized,
on a 10.5 x 9 foot canvas,
Velázquez blurs the boundary
between art and reality,
creating the sense of a three-dimensional
picture that we can walk into.
The line between the ceiling and the wall
converges to the open door,
further creating the perception
of the painting as a physical space
seen from the viewer’s perspective.
In this sense, the audience
and the real world are the focus,
underlined by the three figures
looking straight at the viewer.
But there is still another focal point.
The line formed by the light fixtures
leads to the center of the back wall
to the mirror reflecting the royal couple.
And its positioning relative to the viewer
has led to radically different
interpretations of the entire work.
The mirror could be reflecting the King
and Queen posing for their portrait,
or is it reflecting the canvas?
And what do we make of the fact
that Velázquez never painted
the royal portrait implied here?
Could the painting actually be
depicting its own creation instead?
With the incorporation of the mirror
into his work,
Velázquez elevated the art of painting
from its perception as a simple craft
to an intellectual endeavor.
With its three competing center points,
“Las Meninas” captures the contrast
between the ideal,
the real,
and the reflected worlds,
maintaining an unresolved tension
between them to tell a more complex story
than any mirror can provide.