Art Captions

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0024. Las Meninas

CornTown

on Feb. 12, 2010

By Diego Velázquez (1599-1660)
Circa. 1656
Spanish Baroque

Perhaps the most famous of all Spanish paintings, Las Meninas or “The maids of honor” tells a confusing story of illusion and deceit. At first, we see the Infanta Margarita (The little girl) standing in the room, attended by her servants, her dwarf (Sometimes kept by nobility as a sign of status) and a dog. To the far left, we see the artist himself, Diego Velázquez who is painting a life sized canvas. At first, it appears that the painting is of Velázquez painting Infanta Margarita which in itself is confusing. However, if you look at Velázquez's face, he is looking nowhere near the princess, but instead, directly at the viewer. So then what is he painting? If you look in the background, there is a mirror and you can see the reflections of King Philip IV and Mariana of Austria. So Diego basically painted a painting of himself while he was painting the portrait of king Philip IV and Mariana of Austria. Then why is the Infanta Margarita in the painting? It is believed that she is getting ready to be painted while Velázquez finishes his painting of Philip IV.

Confused yet?