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"Las Meninas", Diego Velasquez's portrait of a Spanish princess and her entourage

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is one of (if not THE) most widely discussed painting in Western Art.

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Every viewing raises more questions and every answer is followed by a dense network of meanings.

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It is not only a high point of realism in painting, a perfect lifelike depiction of the Spanish Court,

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it is also a complex meditation on painting itself.

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It is a spellbinding work that is concerned with how we view a painting, and how the subjects in a painting view us.

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Velasquez was 57 years old when he painted this, and had been the court painter for over 30 years.

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But in this painting - for the first time - e includes himself among the courtiers,

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painting a Monumental canvas 10 and 1/2 ft tall by 9 ft [br]wide.

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The same size as the actual painting that the painted canvas is shown within.

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But who is he painting? The infanta? The King and Queen of Spain? Or is he painting you looking at him?

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Early in his career, Velasquez produced several of these "kitchen" or "Tavern" scenes, known in Spanish as "Bodegones".

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They showed Ordinary People in ordinary settings, often with hidden allegorical meaning.

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When he was just 18, he painted this extraordinary work, which shows a precocious talent

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for capturing the everyday moment and clearly shows his immense skill in depicting different materials and textures,

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as well as his mastery of light and Shadow on both opaque and reflective [br]surfaces.

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The detail of the eggs frying in hot oil is a masterclass.

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This painting which was probably painted to show off his skills, became his calling card to the Royal Palace.

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Here, the water dripping down the Jug demonstrates his astonishing ability to create an almost photographic reality.

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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.

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Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, was born in 1599 in Seville, to a family with plenty of intellect but little financial means.

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Precocious talentedd, he began a six-year apprenticeship when [br]he was 12 years old,

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with the painter Francisco Pacheco, learning classical techniques of painting.

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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.

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There is no evidence he saw caravaggio's work in person,

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but he knew the work of Pieter Aertsen, a Dutch painter accredited with [br]he invention of the Monumental genre scene,

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which combines still life and genre painting, and often [br]includes a Biblical scene in the background.

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Almost like a split screen effect. Velasquez [br]painted several of these types of scenes,

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and he is clearly already experimenting with illusion, [br]with the picture within a picture.

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Something he will perfect later in Las Meninas.

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In 1623, two years after Philip IV came to the throne in Spain at the age of 16,

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Velasquez, who was already being [br]talked about in the right circles,

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was summoned to Madrid to paint a portrait of the king which [br]we think is this one.

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It was an immediate success, and he was pronounced "official painter to the king" on the spot,

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with a promise that no one else should portray the king without his permission.

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A remarkable achievement for such a young man, and one which awakened jealousy from the other court painters.

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Philipe IV of Spain and Velasquez were linked together like no other patronage in art history.

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He first painted him at the age of 24 and 33 years later this painting would [br]be his last of the king.

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Their relationship was unusually close for a monarch and his painter,

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and the King often came to Velasquez while he was painting in his Workshop - just for a quick chat.

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It has been said that the principal motivating force in Velasquez's life, was the desire to be a nobleman,

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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.

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Working his way up to a Knighthood, and he used Las Maninas to prove that he should be considered as a Noble.

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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.

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There is a reason he has put himself in one of his paintings for the first time - on an equal footing with Spanish royalty.

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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.

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In other words, a manual worker. And like most most Court painters he [br]had many other jobs.

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Velasquez was also the "Royal Chamberlain", a job that involved looking after [br]the palace, buying firewood, bedding, and Crockery.

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He had a key to every room in the palace and we [br]can see here, hanging from the painters belt,

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the symbolic keys of his court offices of which he [br]was inordinately proud.

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He was also the curator of the King's galleries, responsible for negotiating [br]the purchase of hundreds of Works.

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In fact, almost every Titian you see today in the Prada, was bought [br]by Velasquez, on trips to Italy.

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The artist had a long life, but only produced between 110 and [br]120 known canvases.

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He produced no etchings or Engravings and only a few drawings are attributed to him.

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This all ties into his two enormous, but mutually exclusive, ambitions.

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He wanted to be seen as the greatest painter of the Spanish court

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but he also wanted to go down in history as a great gentleman.

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The problem was that throughout his time in the palace, his close friendship with the King, meant he had his enemies in the court,

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who were determined to stop his rise through the ranks.

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Philipe became king in 1621 at the age of 16 and heir to the Hapsburg art collection in Madrid.

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In a court that commissioned not only paintings but poetry and theatre too. We often talk about the "Golden Age of Spain",

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and it was a time when great palaces were being built and culture was [br]flourishing, with among others: El Greco, Velasquez, Zurburan, Murillo and Cervantes.

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But Philip IV was in trouble for much of his rule.

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Mainly because of long drawn out expensive Wars, revolts, revolutions, [br]and trouble in the colonies.

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But also because of genetics and inbreeding.

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For two centuries the Hapsburg Kings had married first cousins, nieces, and aunts.

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Resulting in an onslaught of physical [br]and mental ailment

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s, because of their limited gene pool.

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The distinctive "Hapsburg jaw" we see on [br]Philip IV was inherited from earlier Hapsburgs,

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and likely the result of the Royal Family's inbreeding.

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Despite the Spanish Colonial Empire, the country was almost continuously in financial difficulties,

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and had declared bankruptcies in 1647 and 1653.

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The Spanish royal family was so broke that they [br]often couldn't afford firewood to heat the palace, or bread for the tables.

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In fact, when Velasquez died, the crown still owed him 17 years of salary payments.

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And yet, what does las meninas portray?

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A wealthy family dressed in the finest clothes money can buy surrounded by gloriously attired servants in an ornate and Sumptuous setting.

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Like all Royal portraiture, it is a form of propaganda designed to [br]show a courtly audience dynastic stability and Imperial wealth.

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But one thing Philip IV can't disguise is the lack of a male Heir.

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He is on his second marriage by the time of this painting.

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He had 10 children with his first wife, Isabelle de Borbon, but only one son and Heir.

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His wife died in 1644. And then in 1646, their son died.

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A year later, in a hurry to create a new son and Heir, he married [br]his 14-year-old niece, Marianna - when he was 44.

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She gave him five children, but only two survived [br]to adulthood.

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A daughter, Margarita Theresa, born in 1651 - the infanta in Las Maninas, who sadly would die in her teens,

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and the Future King Charles II of Spain who was born 5 years after Las Meninas.

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Charles however, was severely disabled, thanks to inbreeding,

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and he would be the last of the Spanish Hapsburgs.

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Velasquez's position at the court gave him unique access to the Royal collections,

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and he would naturally be influenced by The Works he saw every day.

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He also visited Italy at least twice, on [br]extended trips to buy paintings for Philipe IV,

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and to study the great Masters.

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He was accompanied on these trips by his enslaved assistant a notable painter in his own right, Juan de Pareja,

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who would be given his freedom by Velasquez shortly after he painted this beautiful and dignified portrait in 1650.

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The work's extraordinary lifelike quality, so astonished the papal court, that he was asked to paint Pope InnocentX

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, one of the painter's best and most psychologically insightful Works, [br]which has been described as "a symphony in red".

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It is said that when the pope saw his portrait [br]completed, he exclaimed somewhat bewildered: "Troppo Vero" - "too truthful".

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The influence of contemporary [br]Italian artists, can be seen in Velasquez's mastery of perspective, and his rendering of the male nude in this large canvas,

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he painted while in Rome.

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It was Titian and Peter Paul Rubens, who would have more [br]influ

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ence than any other artist on the development of his style,

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and in particular his Royal portraits.

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Where, in some cases, we can clearly see stylistic similarities between the great Masters.

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This early Titian painting hung in the Spanish Royal Palace when Philip IV came to power

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and was used as the standard by which all other Royal equestrian portraits would be judged.

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And this, spectacular [br]life-sized equestrian Portrait by Velasquez of Philip IV

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was clearly influenced by Titian and Rubens, not only in its Simplicity of pose

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but also in its depiction of the King as a restrained and powerful ruler.

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Velasquez's portrait however is livelier, more elegant and uses a lighter pallette,

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and doesn't rely on a highly charged background.

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The Flemish painter Rubens, even visited the Spanish Court of Philip IV in 1628.

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He was actually on a diplomatic Mission, but still managed to paint five [br]portraits of Philipe,

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while he was there.

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He became great friends with Velasquez and encouraged him to [br]go to Italy to study the Italian Masters to move away from chiaroscuro,

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to be looser in his brush work, and to adopt a brighter palette colour.

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Rubens was not only a successful painter, but he was also [br]an important Diplomat who had been knighted despite his humble background.

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The ambitious Velasquez, saw Rubens as a role model, and through him he found someone he could identify with.

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It was Titian's late works that inspired both Rubens and Velasquez.

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Titian used sketchy and Loosely applied brush work, and he would drag and smudge paint over the canvas

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to suggest the form, rather than using definitive Strokes.

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He also used a very thick rough weave for his canvases, that gave texture to [br]his surfaces.

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Velasquez would do the same.

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Maybe less well known is the influence of Sánchez [br]Coello and Antonis Mor, who were in The Royal collection,

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and would also be important to how Velasquez[br]helped Philipe IV Forge a calculated image of power and piety.

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Probably the biggest influence on [br]Las Maninas though, was a painting from two centuries earlier, "The Arnolfini Portrait: by Jan Van Eyck,

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that I discussed in my earlier video.

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This too was in the collection of Philip IV, and Velasquez [br]would pass it every day on the way to his Studio.

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Like Las Meninas, the Arnolfini portrait also has a mirror positioned at the back of the pictorial space,

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reflecting two figures who would have the

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same point of view as we do.

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It also plays with pictorial space, reflections and illusion.

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Not only in art but also in literature.

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For example, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, is itself a complex multifaceted picture of the relationship between reality and illusion.

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Velasquez used a very coarse canvas, and he didn't use many preliminary sketches that we know of,

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but rather, he painted directly onto the canvas.

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As we can see with these x-rays [br]he often changed his work as he was painting it,

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and these changes are known as "pentimento"

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Velasquez was so experienced by the time of Las Meninas, that the work has very few changes, apart from his self-portrait,

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which initially turned his head more towards the infanta.

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For much of his early career, the artist used a red ground for underlayer, good for building up contrast and tonal values

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- the lights and the darks.

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But by the time of Las meninas, he had a much [br]looser style,

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and diluted his pigments to make them more translucent and fluid, and he painted quite thinly,

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so this necessitated using a neutral grey ground, which allowed for a much wider tonal range, greater luminosity,

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and a general silvery range of colour.

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This was unusual at the time, as 14:21[br]most canvases were primed using dark colours.

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He would paint "alla Prima" or wet-on-wet, where layers [br]of wet paint are applied to existing layers of wet paint, often finishing his paintings in one session.

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With a painting of this size and complexity, that would not be possible, and we can see one example

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in the infanta's sleeve, where although it is mostly wet-on-wet, areas of highlights have been dabbed [br]on later in thick impasto, to create texture.

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With Velazquez, you are always aware[br]that you are looking at paint.

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He doesn't try to hide his brushmarks - quite the reverse.

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By the time he came round to Painting Las Meninas,

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his technique was at its freest and most fluid,

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it is often called a precursor to impressionism,

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but it's more than that.

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Here, the silver of the tray on [br]which the Menina holds the ceramic container

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is achieved with a couple of flicks of white paint,

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and the flowers are just a few slashes of red.

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We often talk about Chiaroscuro, the extreme contrast [br]of light and dark,

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when we talk about Velasquez, and comparisons are often made with Caravaggio.

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He painted his most technically Caravaggio-like picture, "Christ after the flagellation', early on.

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But later, he used a more subtle variation of chiarascuro. Still using light to direct our vision but more subtly.

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As we can see when we look at Las Maninas in greyscale.

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Velasquez uses a dark colour [br]palette for Las Meninas, mostly neutral colours and quite limited,

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and yet he manages to get a broad [br]range of tones with just whites, Blues, yellows, ochres, and small touches of red,

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that help draw [br]15:59[br]your eyes around the painting towards ke

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y points of interest.

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Velasquez even lets us know which colours [br]he used, as the palette that the painter holds in his left hand,

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has the very pigments he used on Las Maninas.

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Between 1640 and 1660, Velasquez mostly painted single portraits.

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The composition and structure of Las Meninas was extremely complicated,

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and with so many characters it's really like the staging of a piece of theatre or performance art.

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It needed to be carefully planned out, with every character seen,

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as well as being seen.

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In Velasquez's hands, they are fully realised individuals.

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Thanks to the 18th century art historian, Antonio Palamino, [br]who wrote a 1724 book on Spanish painters,

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we know quite a lot about the people in Las Meninas,[br]including their names.

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Palomino spoke to Velasquez 's colleagues after his death,

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as well as four of the nine people pictured in the painting.

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Most of the members of the Court are grouped around the 5-year-old infanta, Margarita Teresa,

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who is attended by two Maninas - or maids in Waiting.

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María Agustina Sarmiento, who is passing her water in terracotta pots (so it could be summer).

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and Isabel de Velasco, who seems to be in mid-curtsy.

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Velasquez had painted the princess [br]many times,

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but unfortunately she would die before she was out of her teens.

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She is in the centre [br]of the painting, with the central axis pas

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sing between her eyes.

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Her face is spotlit by light

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coming from an unseen window - top right,

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and her white satin dress glows as she is bathed in the sun.

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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,

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with the dynastic succession resting on her tiny shoulders.

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Showing her as a healthy and beautiful princess is important for future marriage prospects.

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We don't know the name of the dog, but we know the breed is a Spanish Mastiff, which were bred as guard dogs.

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There are few artists with such skill in painting animals as Velasquez!

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The dog is being nudged awake by Nicolas Pertusato, an Italian dwarf and Court Jester.

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Next to him, is the Austrian dwarf Maria Bárbola, who is depicted in an unusual way for a person in her position at the time.

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People with dwarfism, were considered curiosities,

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as little more than "pets", but Velasquez always gave [br]dignity to characters who, due to their profession or condition,

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we

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re treated as lesser beings.

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He shows Maria standing upright, beside the princess.

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She has a thoughtful and controlled expression, and is looking directly at us - or the royal couple.

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Velasquez entered the service of the [br]18:44[br]palace as a royal servant

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and initially was considered a worker, just like the dwarves of the court,

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or the jesters. And so he treated them with an empathy, not seen before in Royal portraits.

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He never mocked them or caricatured them, and often made them the focal point, as fully fleshed out humans.

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In the shadows, this woman is Doña Marcela de Ulloa, the infanta's chaperone,

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and she is in mid-conversation with an unidentified bodyguard.

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At the rear is Don José Nieto Velázquez, brother of the artist,

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and the Queen's Chamberlain. Velasquez had possibly painted him before.

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He has paused at the door, pulling back the heavy exterior curtain,

0:19:23.127,0:19:25.492
with one foot resting on a step while his weight [br]is on his other leg on a different step.

0:19:27.712,0:19:30.209
As the Queen's attendant he was required to be at hand to [br]open and close doors for her.

0:19:32.349,0:19:35.124
We don't know however if he is coming or going, but the light certainly [br]pulls us in,

0:19:38.074,0:19:41.165
and it looks as if he will usher all of us, out from the created world and into the real world.

0:19:44.501,0:19:47.321
In this masterpiece of Illusion,

0:19:50.141,0:19:52.636
Velasquez clearly goes beyond the physical confines of space, [br]by playing with implied spaces, in this case the rest of the palace.

0:19:54.926,0:19:56.883
Velasquez himself is pictured [br]emerging from behind the canvas,

0:19:58.753,0:20:00.682
moving into our gaze from the shadows into the light,

0:20:02.382,0:20:05.101
as he looks at us in the implied space looking at him in the pictorial space.

0:20:08.001,0:20:11.854
He is supremely self-confident and [br]certainly no subservient courtier.

0:20:13.381,0:20:16.055
He is proudly holding the tools of his trade, his Palette is [br]turned towards us showing its colours

0:20:18.665,0:20:21.099
he also holds a mahlstick, used for steadying the hand [br]when doing close work.

0:20:23.429,0:20:26.334
And the long round brushes we know he used which created soft edges rather than hard lines.

0:20:29.240,0:20:31.905
His brush is dipped in paint and perhaps he is considering whether to add some finishing touches,

0:20:34.495,0:20:36.697
but it is also possible that the first stroke has not yet been applied.

0:20:38.527,0:20:42.044
His hand is just a flurry of rapid brush strokes and it would appear to be metamorphosing into his brush,

0:20:45.414,0:20:46.818
as his flesh becomes instrument.

0:20:48.818,0:20:51.041
It is audacious that a servant, albeit a courtier and Royal favourite,

0:20:53.265,0:20:55.032
has given himself greater prominence than his master.

0:20:56.832,0:21:00.405
But it is also inconceivable that Philip IV did not give the concept his Blessing in advance.

0:21:04.090,0:21:06.582
In the same way the Queen's Chamberlain is opening [br]up the implied space beyond the picture frame,

0:21:08.792,0:21:10.548
the mirror here is reflecting the opposite direction,

0:21:11.938,0:21:13.351
forward into the viewer's space.

0:21:14.831,0:21:17.532
The reflection is of King Philip IV and Maria of Austria, the [br]King and Queen.

0:21:20.138,0:21:22.609
We know it is a mirror, and not a painting, as everything else is muted and fuzzy,

0:21:24.729,0:21:28.272
whereas the image of the king and queen is bathed in light in the beveled mirror giving them an almost divine presence.

0:21:32.392,0:21:34.879
That is if we believe the King and Queen are in the same room as the other characters.

0:21:41.239,0:21:44.072
The aforementioned historian, Palamino, noted that the mirror which shows the royal couple, was actually a reflection,

0:21:46.892,0:21:49.172
not of the real monarchs in the room, but of the canvas Velasquez is working on.

0:21:51.453,0:21:53.221
In other words, the couple are not in the room.

0:21:55.161,0:21:57.145
This idea is disputed though, as the reflection is not logical.

0:21:59.215,0:22:03.439
It has to be said though, this is not the first time Velasquez has painted an image which explores the relationship between reality, reflection, and image,

0:22:07.869,0:22:10.972
and which flouts the laws of

0:22:11.012,0:22:13.063
Optics. Here too, we see the mirror with this rather blurred reflection.

0:22:15.033,0:22:17.029
The constant speculation as to what is happening in this painting,

0:22:19.026,0:22:21.639
who is where, and why, is absolutely intentional on the part [br]of Velasquez.

0:22:24.099,0:22:28.652
Whatever the study of perspective or reflection tells us, the Royal presence is still the most plausible explanation for the outward glances of the characters,

0:22:33.282,0:22:37.356
and I think that the King and Queen ARE in the room, and the mirror IS a reflection of them at the far end of the room,sitting for Velasquez.

0:22:41.526,0:22:44.953
The fact that the Queen's Chamberlain is opening the curtain to the Palace, [br]sugests that the royal couple are preparing to exit.

0:22:48.028,0:22:49.920
This would explained the infanta's gaze towards her parents.

0:22:51.670,0:22:54.082
Velasquez, who seems to be peeping out of the darkness realising [br]his time is up,

0:22:56.522,0:22:59.558
and the Manina to the right of the infanta, who is beginning to curtsy, as she [br]looks towards the couple.

0:23:02.658,0:23:04.568
There is a palpable sense of anticipation in the air.

0:23:06.318,0:23:09.388
If the king and queen are there, and I think they are, then Velasquez has one more trick up his sleeve.

0:23:12.238,0:23:14.165
He has placed the king and queen outside of the pictorial space,

0:23:15.845,0:23:18.366
standing exactly where we the commoners [br]would stand, when we view the paintings.

0:23:21.336,0:23:23.351
We are standing right next to King Philipe IV of Spain!

0:23:29.525,0:23:31.908
With this painting, Velasquez was out to prove that painting was a noble, intellectual art,

0:23:34.228,0:23:35.597
and Las Maninas would be evidence.

0:23:36.966,0:23:38.921
It is in fact, a portrait about the painting of a [br]portrait.

0:23:40.699,0:23:42.157
Let's start with the physicality of the space.

0:23:43.807,0:23:46.521
The building was destroyed by fire [br]in 1734, but the historical plan still exist.

0:23:49.031,0:23:52.470
Las meninas was painted in the Cuarto del Príncipe, or the [br]king's quarters, in the Alcazar in Madrid.

0:23:56.020,0:23:57.205
Which is the room depicted in the work.

0:23:58.365,0:24:02.012
It was once part of [br]the apartment occupied by the Crown Prince Don Baltasar Carlos, who had died in 1646.

0:24:05.412,0:24:07.961
Once the painting was finished it was planned to be placed in that same room.

0:24:10.376,0:24:13.605
An inventory of the room, proved [br]that everything Velasquez painted, was really there (apart from the mirror in the back).

0:24:16.965,0:24:18.785
The illusion starts with the almost life-size figures.

0:24:20.625,0:24:22.800
The painting is enormous, coming in at over 10 ft by 9 ft.

0:24:24.960,0:24:29.067
The room had these wonderful high ceilings, and the shutters have been placed by Velasquez to [br]reveal slivers of light exactly where he wants it.

0:24:33.071,0:24:35.000
The main light source is from an invisible window [br]to the right

0:24:37.040,0:24:40.249
, and another source is the door at the back, that illuminates the figure and sends a pencil thin beam across the floor.

0:24:43.759,0:24:46.419
While Las Meninas is clearly a royal painting, it stands out from [br]other court paintings,

0:24:48.929,0:24:51.775
because the piece was intended to hang in a private room rather than displayed publicly.

0:24:54.535,0:24:58.728
It may look formal to us nowadays, but compared to other Royal portraits, Las Meninas is fairly spontaneous, casual, and relaxed.

0:25:02.803,0:25:06.897
There is a LOT in this painting; people, animals, Reflections, [br]25:07[br]paintings on the wall, textures, other objects, and movement

0:25:10.992,0:25:13.999
- and yet, there is a cohesion to the [br]canvas, because it is organised in an orderly composition.

0:25:17.072,0:25:20.031
It is balanced perfectly with the [br]relatively quiet top half against the busy bottom half.

0:25:23.080,0:25:25.170
The figures occupy a clear horizontal strip [br]across the painting,

0:25:27.350,0:25:29.770
but it isn't frieze-like, as they are at different depths into the view.

0:25:31.700,0:25:33.618
The first layer is the canvas, the dwarf, and the dog.

0:25:35.536,0:25:36.901
Then we have the infanta and her maids.

0:25:38.265,0:25:40.087
And then Velasquez, the chaperone and the bodyguard.

0:25:41.927,0:25:44.283
The layering continues throughout the picture, and beyond [br]the picture frame.

0:25:48.191,0:25:52.188
The painting features several frames; the frame of the room in which they are all standing,

0:25:52.658,0:25:55.307
the frames of the paintings on the wall, the frame of the canvas Velasquez is working [br]on,

0:25:58.127,0:25:59.826
the frame of the mirror, and the frame of the door in the background.

0:26:01.816,0:26:03.666
These frames provide a [br]strong linear and geometric theme to the painting.

0:26:05.766,0:26:06.691
You get a feel of structure and organisation.

0:26:08.891,0:26:11.173
But, a perfect perspective is not essential to our understanding of this painting,

0:26:13.433,0:26:15.141
any more than a [br]perfect understanding of optics.

0:26:16.960,0:26:18.696
What is the focal point? Well there are several possibilities.

0:26:20.433,0:26:24.296
Just look at the picture as a whole, and you notice your eye scans around the canvas, as it would do in any large space.

0:26:28.410,0:26:30.682
We ricochet from one figure to another.

0:26:31.342,0:26:33.952
Possible Focus points are the man in the [br]doorway, the infanta, or the reflection of the King and Queen.

0:26:36.563,0:26:39.001
It seems at first glance that Velasquez is drawing all our attention to the infanta,

0:26:42.051,0:26:44.800
and he has used some clever and subtle techniques to draw [br]attention to her in such a busy scene.

0:26:47.399,0:26:50.258
There is the dress of course, but also she faces towards the main light[br]source coming from the right,

0:26:53.328,0:26:55.043
while most of the other figures are facing away from the light.

0:26:56.550,0:26:59.907
Maria Augustina is looking directly at her, and the characters to the left nudge us towards the infanta.

0:27:04.087,0:27:07.166
We do know that this painting was not intended to be on public View [br]and was really considered a private possession of the king

0:27:10.306,0:27:11.845
- for an audience of one.

0:27:12.305,0:27:14.290
Which would suggest the focal point is the reflection of the king?

0:27:16.350,0:27:19.197
The focus is STILL highly debated [br]and always wil

0:27:22.197,0:27:26.666
l be, but the vanishing point is not. It comes from José Nieto, as he stands in the staircase, more specifically the crook of his arm is the exact vanishing point.

0:27:31.876,0:27:33.636
THIS is the key to Velasquez's [br]mastery of Illusion.

0:27:36.076,0:27:39.136
He uses realism, light, and structure, to pull together the disparate elements [br]in an exquisitely balanced painting.

0:27:42.136,0:27:45.398
It is an image so complex, that he could only have achieved it at [br]this later stage of his life,

0:27:48.528,0:27:50.629
with the extensive knowledge he has picked up from a lifetime of painting.

0:27:56.639,0:28:00.244
The two paintings on the back wall are important symbolically, and represent two oil paintings by Rubens, Velasquez's role model.

0:28:03.834,0:28:06.577
And show scenes from Ovid's "Metamorphoses".

0:28:06.647,0:28:08.488
There is a good reason they are there.

0:28:09.079,0:28:12.050
If we remember that Velasquez wants desperately to raise his [br]profession from "Tradesmen" to "Artistic nobility".

0:28:14.870,0:28:17.786
They tell the tale of the superiority, the nobility, [br]and the Divine calling of the artist.

0:28:21.366,0:28:23.306
In which Mortals prove themselves more skilled than even [br]the gods.

0:28:25.246,0:28:27.555
Rubens was the most influential Flemish artist of the 17th century,

0:28:29.864,0:28:33.133
so by linking himself with Rubens, Velasquez is showing that he had reached the highest tier in European art.

0:28:39.843,0:28:42.126
One of the great enigmas in the portrait of Velasquez, is the Red Cross on his tunic.

0:28:44.410,0:28:47.792
It is the heraldic symbol of the order of Santiago,

0:28:47.802,0:28:49.711
a religious and Military order, founded in the 12th [br]century.

0:28:51.620,0:28:54.414
He had petitioned the king to make him a knight of Santiago for years, to secure Noble status,

0:28:57.760,0:29:00.346
citing the link between artistic nobility and social nobility.

0:29:02.806,0:29:05.034
But the committee of the order [br]of Santiago refused - due to his bloodline.

0:29:07.234,0:29:08.888
It was rumoured that his grandparents were Jewish converts.

0:29:10.428,0:29:13.559
Luckily for Velasquez, as well as being employer and employee, he and Philip IV were close friends,

0:29:16.579,0:29:19.428
and he was finally inducted in the order in 1659, a year before his death,

0:29:22.528,0:29:25.857
after the king obtained a dispensation from the Pope to overrule doubts as to the artist's blood and trade.

0:29:30.187,0:29:33.241
Diego Velasquez, in many ways was unremarkable, apart from the fact he was appointed court painter.

0:29:35.791,0:29:40.350
He had one wife, one Friend (the King), and one Studio (the palace), and spent his whole life climbing the social ladder.

0:29:45.000,0:29:47.280
His Knighthood is the culmination.

0:29:48.340,0:29:51.755
What makes makes this cross in the painting interesting, is that he was knighted a full 3 years after Las meninas was finished,

0:29:54.999,0:29:59.048
and a year before he died, which means that the cross was painted on the artist's tunic years after the painting was created.

0:30:03.388,0:30:08.149
Tradition had it, that after the artist's death, Philipe IV [br]himself painted the Red Cross of the Knights of Santiago on the tunic, but that's unlikely.

0:30:12.769,0:30:16.957
After the painting was cleaned in the early 1980s it was revealed that the brush work of the cross is uniform with the rest of the surface,

0:30:21.146,0:30:23.010
so it was almost certainly Velasquez [br]who painted the cross.

0:30:24.980,0:30:30.417
We can only imagine the immense satisfaction the artist got from adding [br]the cross to the painting, and therefore rubbing the snobby courtier's noses in the fact that he was now one of them.

0:30:37.642,0:30:39.743
Velasquez, who was in essence, born a trades person, died a wealthy Noble.

0:30:41.844,0:30:46.616
On his death it is said that the King was heartbroken, and the great friendship that had united them, is evident in three words that the Monarch wrote

0:30:51.516,0:30:55.859
in a memorandum after his death: "I am shaken".

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Transcript by Margarida Mariz