"Las Meninas", Diego Velasquez's portrait of a Spanish princess and her entourage
is one of (if not THE) most widely discussed painting in Western Art.
Every viewing raises more questions and every answer is followed by a dense network of meanings.
It is not only a high point of realism in painting, a perfect lifelike depiction of the Spanish Court,
it is also a complex meditation on painting itself.
It is a spellbinding work that is concerned with how we view a painting, and how the subjects in a painting view us.
Velasquez was 57 years old when he painted this, and had been the court painter for over 30 years.
But in this painting - for the first time - e includes himself among the courtiers,
painting a Monumental canvas 10 and 1/2 ft tall by 9 ft wide.
The same size as the actual painting that the painted canvas is shown within.
But who is he painting? The infanta? The King and Queen of Spain? Or is he painting you looking at him?
Early in his career, Velasquez produced several of these "kitchen" or "Tavern" scenes, known in Spanish as "Bodegones".
They showed Ordinary People in ordinary settings, often with hidden allegorical meaning.
When he was just 18, he painted this extraordinary work, which shows a precocious talent
for capturing the everyday moment and clearly shows his immense skill in depicting different materials and textures,
as well as his mastery of light and Shadow on both opaque and reflective surfaces.
The detail of the eggs frying in hot oil is a masterclass.
This painting which was probably painted to show off his skills, became his calling card to the Royal Palace.
Here, the water dripping down the Jug demonstrates his astonishing ability to create an almost photographic reality.
Common people were always treated with dignity by the artist and his early paintings not only showed a supremely confident technique and attention to detail, he gave workers a gravitas in his paintings.
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, was born in 1599 in Seville, to a family with plenty of intellect but little financial means.
Precocious talentedd, he began a six-year apprenticeship when he was 12 years old,
with the painter Francisco Pacheco, learning classical techniques of painting.
But the young artist quickly moved away from Pacheco's old-fashioned stiff style, towards a new dramatic naturalism inspired by Caravaggio and his followers.
There is no evidence he saw caravaggio's work in person,
but he knew the work of Pieter Aertsen, a Dutch painter accredited with he invention of the Monumental genre scene,
which combines still life and genre painting, and often includes a Biblical scene in the background.
Almost like a split screen effect. Velasquez painted several of these types of scenes,
and he is clearly already experimenting with illusion, with the picture within a picture.
Something he will perfect later in Las Meninas.
In 1623, two years after Philip IV came to the throne in Spain at the age of 16,
Velasquez, who was already being talked about in the right circles,
was summoned to Madrid to paint a portrait of the king which we think is this one.
It was an immediate success, and he was pronounced "official painter to the king" on the spot,
with a promise that no one else should portray the king without his permission.
A remarkable achievement for such a young man, and one which awakened jealousy from the other court painters.
Philipe IV of Spain and Velasquez were linked together like no other patronage in art history.
He first painted him at the age of 24 and 33 years later this painting would be his last of the king.
Their relationship was unusually close for a monarch and his painter,
and the King often came to Velasquez while he was painting in his Workshop - just for a quick chat.
It has been said that the principal motivating force in Velasquez's life, was the desire to be a nobleman,
and he would remain attached to the court for the rest of his life, where step by step he would Ascend through the hierarchy of Court appointments.
Working his way up to a Knighthood, and he used Las Maninas to prove that he should be considered as a Noble.
At the same ime he is painting his Masterpiece, a committee are deciding whether he can be made a knight of the order of Santiago, in other words be ennobled.
There is a reason he has put himself in one of his paintings for the first time - on an equal footing with Spanish royalty.
It is so important to understand that a painter in 17th century Spain and elsewhere, was considered as just another crafts person, like a carpenter.
In other words, a manual worker. And like most most Court painters he had many other jobs.
Velasquez was also the "Royal Chamberlain", a job that involved looking after the palace, buying firewood, bedding, and Crockery.
He had a key to every room in the palace and we can see here, hanging from the painters belt,
the symbolic keys of his court offices of which he was inordinately proud.
He was also the curator of the King's galleries, responsible for negotiating the purchase of hundreds of Works.
In fact, almost every Titian you see today in the Prada, was bought by Velasquez, on trips to Italy.
The artist had a long life, but only produced between 110 and 120 known canvases.
He produced no etchings or Engravings and only a few drawings are attributed to him.
This all ties into his two enormous, but mutually exclusive, ambitions.
He wanted to be seen as the greatest painter of the Spanish court
but he also wanted to go down in history as a great gentleman.
The problem was that throughout his time in the palace, his close friendship with the King, meant he had his enemies in the court,
who were determined to stop his rise through the ranks.
Philipe became king in 1621 at the age of 16 and heir to the Hapsburg art collection in Madrid.
In a court that commissioned not only paintings but poetry and theatre too. We often talk about the "Golden Age of Spain",
and it was a time when great palaces were being built and culture was flourishing, with among others: El Greco, Velasquez, Zurburan, Murillo and Cervantes.
But Philip IV was in trouble for much of his rule.
Mainly because of long drawn out expensive Wars, revolts, revolutions, and trouble in the colonies.
But also because of genetics and inbreeding.
For two centuries the Hapsburg Kings had married first cousins, nieces, and aunts.
Resulting in an onslaught of physical and mental ailment
s, because of their limited gene pool.
The distinctive "Hapsburg jaw" we see on Philip IV was inherited from earlier Hapsburgs,
and likely the result of the Royal Family's inbreeding.
Despite the Spanish Colonial Empire, the country was almost continuously in financial difficulties,
and had declared bankruptcies in 1647 and 1653.
The Spanish royal family was so broke that they often couldn't afford firewood to heat the palace, or bread for the tables.
In fact, when Velasquez died, the crown still owed him 17 years of salary payments.
And yet, what does las meninas portray?
A wealthy family dressed in the finest clothes money can buy surrounded by gloriously attired servants in an ornate and Sumptuous setting.
Like all Royal portraiture, it is a form of propaganda designed to show a courtly audience dynastic stability and Imperial wealth.
But one thing Philip IV can't disguise is the lack of a male Heir.
He is on his second marriage by the time of this painting.
He had 10 children with his first wife, Isabelle de Borbon, but only one son and Heir.
His wife died in 1644. And then in 1646, their son died.
A year later, in a hurry to create a new son and Heir, he married his 14-year-old niece, Marianna - when he was 44.
She gave him five children, but only two survived to adulthood.
A daughter, Margarita Theresa, born in 1651 - the infanta in Las Maninas, who sadly would die in her teens,
and the Future King Charles II of Spain who was born 5 years after Las Meninas.
Charles however, was severely disabled, thanks to inbreeding,
and he would be the last of the Spanish Hapsburgs.
Velasquez's position at the court gave him unique access to the Royal collections,
and he would naturally be influenced by The Works he saw every day.
He also visited Italy at least twice, on extended trips to buy paintings for Philipe IV,
and to study the great Masters.
He was accompanied on these trips by his enslaved assistant a notable painter in his own right, Juan de Pareja,
who would be given his freedom by Velasquez shortly after he painted this beautiful and dignified portrait in 1650.
The work's extraordinary lifelike quality, so astonished the papal court, that he was asked to paint Pope InnocentX
, one of the painter's best and most psychologically insightful Works, which has been described as "a symphony in red".
It is said that when the pope saw his portrait completed, he exclaimed somewhat bewildered: "Troppo Vero" - "too truthful".
The influence of contemporary Italian artists, can be seen in Velasquez's mastery of perspective, and his rendering of the male nude in this large canvas,
he painted while in Rome.
It was Titian and Peter Paul Rubens, who would have more influ
ence than any other artist on the development of his style,
and in particular his Royal portraits.
Where, in some cases, we can clearly see stylistic similarities between the great Masters.
This early Titian painting hung in the Spanish Royal Palace when Philip IV came to power
and was used as the standard by which all other Royal equestrian portraits would be judged.
And this, spectacular life-sized equestrian Portrait by Velasquez of Philip IV
was clearly influenced by Titian and Rubens, not only in its Simplicity of pose
but also in its depiction of the King as a restrained and powerful ruler.
Velasquez's portrait however is livelier, more elegant and uses a lighter pallette,
and doesn't rely on a highly charged background.
The Flemish painter Rubens, even visited the Spanish Court of Philip IV in 1628.
He was actually on a diplomatic Mission, but still managed to paint five portraits of Philipe,
while he was there.
He became great friends with Velasquez and encouraged him to go to Italy to study the Italian Masters to move away from chiaroscuro,
to be looser in his brush work, and to adopt a brighter palette colour.
Rubens was not only a successful painter, but he was also an important Diplomat who had been knighted despite his humble background.
The ambitious Velasquez, saw Rubens as a role model, and through him he found someone he could identify with.
It was Titian's late works that inspired both Rubens and Velasquez.
Titian used sketchy and Loosely applied brush work, and he would drag and smudge paint over the canvas
to suggest the form, rather than using definitive Strokes.
He also used a very thick rough weave for his canvases, that gave texture to his surfaces.
Velasquez would do the same.
Maybe less well known is the influence of Sánchez Coello and Antonis Mor, who were in The Royal collection,
and would also be important to how Velasquez helped Philipe IV Forge a calculated image of power and piety.
Probably the biggest influence on Las Maninas though, was a painting from two centuries earlier, "The Arnolfini Portrait: by Jan Van Eyck,
that I discussed in my earlier video.
This too was in the collection of Philip IV, and Velasquez would pass it every day on the way to his Studio.
Like Las Meninas, the Arnolfini portrait also has a mirror positioned at the back of the pictorial space,
reflecting two figures who would have the
same point of view as we do.
It also plays with pictorial space, reflections and illusion.
Not only in art but also in literature.
For example, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, is itself a complex multifaceted picture of the relationship between reality and illusion.
Velasquez used a very coarse canvas, and he didn't use many preliminary sketches that we know of,
but rather, he painted directly onto the canvas.
As we can see with these x-rays he often changed his work as he was painting it,
and these changes are known as "pentimento"
Velasquez was so experienced by the time of Las Meninas, that the work has very few changes, apart from his self-portrait,
which initially turned his head more towards the infanta.
For much of his early career, the artist used a red ground for underlayer, good for building up contrast and tonal values
- the lights and the darks.
But by the time of Las meninas, he had a much looser style,
and diluted his pigments to make them more translucent and fluid, and he painted quite thinly,
so this necessitated using a neutral grey ground, which allowed for a much wider tonal range, greater luminosity,
and a general silvery range of colour.
This was unusual at the time, as 14:21 most canvases were primed using dark colours.
He would paint "alla Prima" or wet-on-wet, where layers of wet paint are applied to existing layers of wet paint, often finishing his paintings in one session.
With a painting of this size and complexity, that would not be possible, and we can see one example
in the infanta's sleeve, where although it is mostly wet-on-wet, areas of highlights have been dabbed on later in thick impasto, to create texture.
With Velazquez, you are always aware that you are looking at paint.
He doesn't try to hide his brushmarks - quite the reverse.
By the time he came round to Painting Las Meninas,
his technique was at its freest and most fluid,
it is often called a precursor to impressionism,
but it's more than that.
Here, the silver of the tray on which the Menina holds the ceramic container
is achieved with a couple of flicks of white paint,
and the flowers are just a few slashes of red. We often talk about Chiaroscuro, the extreme contrast 15:21 of light and dark, when we talk about Velasquez, and comparisons are often made with Caravaggio. 15:26 He painted his most technically Caravaggio-like picture, "Christ after the flagellation', early on. 15:33 But later, he used a more subtle variation of chiarascuro. Still using light to direct our vision but more subtly. 15:40 As we can see when we look at Las Maninas in greyscale. Velasquez uses a dark colour 15:47 palette for Las Meninas, mostly neutral colours and quite limited, and yet he manages to get a broad 15:53 range of tones with just whites, Blues, yellows, ochres, and small touches of red, that help draw 15:59 your eyes around the painting towards key points of interest. Velasquez even lets us know which colours 16:05 he used, as the palette that the painter holds in his left hand, has the very pigments he used on Las Maninas. 16:16 Between 1640 and 1660, Velasquez mostly painted single portraits. The composition 16:22 and structure of Las Meninas was extremely complicated, and with so many characters it's really like the staging of a piece of theatre or performance art. It needed to be 16:31 carefully planned out, with every character seen, as well as being seen. In Velasquez's hands, they 16:37 are fully realised individuals. Thanks to the 18th century art historian, Antonio Palamino, 16:43 who wrote a 1724 book on Spanish painters, we know quite a lot about the people in Las Meninas, 16:50 including their names. Palomino spoke to Velasquez 's colleagues after his death, as well 16:55 as four of the nine people pictured in the painting. Most of the members of the Court are grouped around the 5-year-old infanta, Margarita Teresa, who is attended by two Maninas - or maids in 17:06 Waiting. María Agustina Sarmiento, who is passing her water in terracotta pots (so it could be summer). 17:13 and Isabel de Velasco, who seems to be in mid-curtsy. Velasquez had painted the princess 17:19 many times, but unfortunately she would die before she was out of her teens. She is in the centre 17:25 of the painting, with the central axis passing between her eyes. Her face is spotlit by light 17:31 coming from an unseen window - top right, and her white satin dress glows as she is bathed in the sun. 17:37 It is the princess's presence that makes this a "political painting", as at the time the infanta was the only child of Philipe IV, with the dynastic succession resting on her tiny shoulders. 17:50 Showing her as a healthy and beautiful princess is important for future marriage prospects. 17:56 We don't know the name of the dog, but we know the breed is a Spanish Mastiff, which were bred as guard dogs. There are few artists with such skill in painting animals as Velasquez! The dog is being 18:07 nudged awake by Nicolas Pertusato, an Italian dwarf and Court Jester. Next to him, is the Austrian dwarf 18:14 Maria Bárbola, who is depicted in an unusual way for a person in her position at the time. 18:20 People with dwarfism, were considered curiosities, as little more than "pets", but Velasquez always gave 18:26 dignity to characters who, due to their profession or condition, were treated as lesser beings. 18:31 He shows Maria standing upright, beside the princess. She has a thoughtful and controlled expression, 18:38 and is looking directly at us - or the royal couple. Velasquez entered the service of the 18:44 palace as a royal servant and initially was considered a worker, just like the dwarves of the court, or the jesters. And so he treated them with an empathy, not seen before in Royal 18:54 portraits. He never mocked them or caricatured them, and often made them the focal point, as 19:00