1
00:00:04,904 --> 00:00:09,841
"Las Meninas", Diego Velasquez's portrait
of a Spanish princess and her entourage

2
00:00:09,891 --> 00:00:14,747
is one of (if not THE) most widely
discussed painting in Western Art.

3
00:00:15,376 --> 00:00:17,759
Every viewing raises more questions

4
00:00:17,759 --> 00:00:21,623
and every answer is followed
by a dense network of meanings.

5
00:00:22,453 --> 00:00:25,142
It is not only a high point
of realism in painting,

6
00:00:25,150 --> 00:00:28,722
a perfect lifelike depiction
of the Spanish Court,

7
00:00:28,737 --> 00:00:32,834
it is also a complex meditation
on painting itself.

8
00:00:33,419 --> 00:00:35,244
It is a spellbinding work

9
00:00:35,244 --> 00:00:38,117
that is concerned 
with how we view a painting,

10
00:00:38,137 --> 00:00:40,660
and how the subjects
in a painting view us.

11
00:00:41,273 --> 00:00:44,504
Velasquez was 57 years old
when he painted this,

12
00:00:44,534 --> 00:00:47,742
and had been the court painter
for over 30 years.

13
00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:49,960
But in this painting
— for the first time —

14
00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,840
he includes himself among the courtiers,

15
00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:57,776
painting a monumental canvas
10 and 1/2 feet tall by 9 feet wide,

16
00:00:58,050 --> 00:01:03,204
the same size as the actual painting
that the painted canvas is shown within.

17
00:01:04,194 --> 00:01:05,942
But who is he painting?

18
00:01:06,292 --> 00:01:09,418
The infanta? 
The king and queen of Spain?

19
00:01:09,746 --> 00:01:12,487
Or is he painting you, looking at him?

20
00:01:29,851 --> 00:01:32,257
Early in his career, Velasquez produced

21
00:01:32,267 --> 00:01:34,674
several of these "kitchen" 
or "tavern" scenes,

22
00:01:34,694 --> 00:01:37,084
known in Spanish as "bodegones".

23
00:01:37,460 --> 00:01:40,589
They showed ordinary people
in ordinary settings,

24
00:01:40,629 --> 00:01:43,677
often with hidden allegorical meaning.

25
00:01:43,757 --> 00:01:47,082
When he was just 18, 
he painted this extraordinary work,

26
00:01:47,082 --> 00:01:49,191
which shows a precocious talent

27
00:01:49,215 --> 00:01:51,603
for capturing the everyday moment

28
00:01:51,623 --> 00:01:53,851
and clearly shows his immense skill

29
00:01:53,871 --> 00:01:56,518
in depicting different
materials and textures,

30
00:01:56,530 --> 00:01:59,165
as well as his mastery of light and shadow

31
00:01:59,165 --> 00:02:02,122
on both opaque and reflective 
surfaces.

32
00:02:02,756 --> 00:02:07,154
The detail of the eggs 
frying in hot oil is a masterclass.

33
00:02:07,494 --> 00:02:11,208
This painting which was probably
painted to show off his skills,

34
00:02:11,258 --> 00:02:13,705
became his calling card 
to the Royal Palace.

35
00:02:13,775 --> 00:02:16,152
Here, the water dripping down the jug

36
00:02:16,152 --> 00:02:18,467
demonstrates his astonishing ability

37
00:02:18,467 --> 00:02:21,241
to create an almost photographic reality.

38
00:02:21,450 --> 00:02:25,014
Common people were always
treated with dignity by the artist

39
00:02:25,247 --> 00:02:28,006
and his early paintings not only showed

40
00:02:28,006 --> 00:02:30,975
a supremely confident
technique and attention to detail,

41
00:02:31,075 --> 00:02:34,442
he gave workers
a gravitas in his paintings.

42
00:02:37,584 --> 00:02:42,928
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez
was born in 1599 in Seville,

43
00:02:43,158 --> 00:02:46,994
to a family with plenty of intellect
but little financial means.

44
00:02:47,863 --> 00:02:51,013
Precocious talented, 
he began a six-year apprenticeship

45
00:02:51,039 --> 00:02:52,912
when 
he was 12 years old,

46
00:02:52,922 --> 00:02:55,388
with the painter Francisco Pacheco,

47
00:02:55,388 --> 00:02:57,824
learning classical techniques of painting.

48
00:02:58,364 --> 00:03:02,831
But the young artist quickly moved away
from Pacheco's old-fashioned stiff style,

49
00:03:02,951 --> 00:03:05,630
towards a new dramatic naturalism

50
00:03:05,660 --> 00:03:07,889
inspired by Caravaggio and his followers.

51
00:03:08,284 --> 00:03:11,661
There is no evidence he saw
Caravaggio's work in person,

52
00:03:11,757 --> 00:03:15,256
but he knew the work of Pieter Aertsen,
a Dutch painter

53
00:03:15,276 --> 00:03:18,631
accredited with the invention
of the monumental genre scene,

54
00:03:18,676 --> 00:03:21,299
which combines still life 
and genre painting,

55
00:03:21,299 --> 00:03:24,741
and often includes 
a biblical scene in the background,

56
00:03:24,781 --> 00:03:26,993
almost like a split screen effect.

57
00:03:27,423 --> 00:03:30,253
Velasquez painted several 
of these types of scenes,

58
00:03:30,295 --> 00:03:33,800
and he is clearly already
experimenting with illusion,

59
00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:35,703
with the picture within a picture,

60
00:03:35,735 --> 00:03:39,149
something he will perfect later
in Las Meninas.

61
00:03:39,559 --> 00:03:42,590
In 1623, two years after Philip IV

62
00:03:42,590 --> 00:03:45,824
came to the throne in Spain 
at the age of 16,

63
00:03:46,024 --> 00:03:49,743
Velasquez, who was already being 
talked about in the right circles,

64
00:03:49,763 --> 00:03:52,823
was summoned to Madrid 
to paint a portrait of the king

65
00:03:52,953 --> 00:03:55,204
which we think is this one.

66
00:03:55,504 --> 00:03:57,247
It was an immediate success

67
00:03:57,267 --> 00:04:00,917
and he was pronounced 
official painter to the king on the spot,

68
00:04:01,257 --> 00:04:05,561
with a promise that no one else should
portray the king without his permission,

69
00:04:06,282 --> 00:04:08,860
a remarkable achievement
for such a young man,

70
00:04:08,860 --> 00:04:12,746
and one which awakened jealousy
from the other court painters.

71
00:04:13,637 --> 00:04:16,778
Philipe IV of Spain and Velasquez 
were linked together

72
00:04:16,778 --> 00:04:19,085
like no other patronage in Art History.

73
00:04:19,130 --> 00:04:21,692
He first painted him at the age of 24

74
00:04:21,702 --> 00:04:23,465
and 33 years later

75
00:04:23,525 --> 00:04:26,101
this painting would 
be his last of the king.

76
00:04:26,411 --> 00:04:30,222
Their relationship was unusually close
for a monarch and his painter,

77
00:04:30,302 --> 00:04:32,505
and the king often came to Velasquez

78
00:04:32,505 --> 00:04:35,920
while he was painting in his workshop
— just for a quick chat.

79
00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:37,497
It has been said

80
00:04:37,497 --> 00:04:40,673
that the principal motivating force
in Velasquez's life,

81
00:04:40,673 --> 00:04:42,987
was the desire to be a nobleman,

82
00:04:43,174 --> 00:04:45,157
and he would remain
attached to the court

83
00:04:45,170 --> 00:04:46,758
for the rest of his life,

84
00:04:46,758 --> 00:04:48,890
where step by step he would ascend

85
00:04:48,890 --> 00:04:51,641
through the hierarchy
of court appointments,

86
00:04:51,696 --> 00:04:53,940
working his way up to a knighthood,

87
00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:58,395
and he used Las Maninas to prove 
that he should be considered as a noble.

88
00:04:58,619 --> 00:05:01,886
At the same time 
he is painting his masterpiece,

89
00:05:01,886 --> 00:05:03,592
a committee are deciding

90
00:05:03,592 --> 00:05:06,614
whether he can be made a knight
of the order of Santiago,

91
00:05:06,654 --> 00:05:09,112
in other words be ennobled.

92
00:05:09,238 --> 00:05:13,420
There is a reason he has put himself
in one of his paintings for the first time

93
00:05:13,499 --> 00:05:16,230
— on an equal footing
with Spanish royalty.

94
00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:18,350
It is so important to understand

95
00:05:18,350 --> 00:05:21,801
that a painter in 17th century 
Spain and elsewhere,

96
00:05:21,850 --> 00:05:25,911
was considered as just another
crafts person, like a carpenter,

97
00:05:26,121 --> 00:05:28,801
in other words, a manual worker.

98
00:05:29,191 --> 00:05:32,212
And like most most court painters
he had many other jobs.

99
00:05:32,261 --> 00:05:34,668
Velasquez was also 
the "Royal Chamberlain",

100
00:05:34,668 --> 00:05:37,546
a job that involved 
looking after the palace,

101
00:05:37,676 --> 00:05:40,825
buying firewood, 
bedding, and crockery.

102
00:05:40,949 --> 00:05:43,323
He had a key to every room in the palace

103
00:05:43,323 --> 00:05:46,012
and we can see here,
hanging from the painters belt,

104
00:05:46,060 --> 00:05:48,219
the symbolic keys
of his court offices

105
00:05:48,219 --> 00:05:51,189
of which he was inordinately proud.

106
00:05:51,497 --> 00:05:53,853
He was also the curator
of the king's galleries,

107
00:05:53,882 --> 00:05:57,426
responsible for negotiating 
the purchase of hundreds of works.

108
00:05:57,806 --> 00:06:01,161
In fact, almost every Titian
you see today in the Prado,

109
00:06:01,170 --> 00:06:03,834
was bought by Velasquez, 
on trips to Italy.

110
00:06:04,258 --> 00:06:05,953
The artist had a long life,

111
00:06:05,953 --> 00:06:10,098
but only produced 
between 110 and 120 known canvases.

112
00:06:10,346 --> 00:06:12,888
He produced no etchings or engravings

113
00:06:12,907 --> 00:06:15,683
and only a few drawings 
are attributed to him.

114
00:06:15,703 --> 00:06:20,328
This all ties into his two enormous,
but mutually exclusive, ambitions.

115
00:06:20,979 --> 00:06:22,404
He wanted to be seen

116
00:06:22,404 --> 00:06:24,729
as the greatest painter 
of the Spanish court

117
00:06:24,773 --> 00:06:28,953
but he also wanted to go down
in History as a great gentleman.

118
00:06:29,398 --> 00:06:32,178
The problem was that throughout
his time in the palace,

119
00:06:32,248 --> 00:06:34,201
his close friendship with the king

120
00:06:34,201 --> 00:06:36,084
meant he had 
his enemies in the court,

121
00:06:36,113 --> 00:06:39,400
who were determined 
to stop his rise through the ranks.

122
00:06:42,552 --> 00:06:45,917
Philipe became king in 1621 
at the age of 16

123
00:06:45,917 --> 00:06:49,201
and heir to the Hapsburg 
art collection in Madrid.

124
00:06:49,649 --> 00:06:51,150
In a court that commissioned

125
00:06:51,150 --> 00:06:54,026
not only paintings 
but poetry and theatre too,

126
00:06:54,176 --> 00:06:57,053
we often talk about
the "Golden Age of Spain",

127
00:06:57,123 --> 00:06:59,859
and it was a time 
when great palaces were being built

128
00:06:59,919 --> 00:07:02,569
and culture was flourishing, 
with among others:

129
00:07:02,629 --> 00:07:07,521
El Greco, Velasquez, Zurbaran, 
Murillo and Cervantes.

130
00:07:08,455 --> 00:07:11,183
But Philip IV was in trouble
for much of his rule,

131
00:07:11,246 --> 00:07:16,352
mainly because of long drawn out 
expensive wars, revolts, revolutions,

132
00:07:16,471 --> 00:07:18,346
and trouble in the colonies.

133
00:07:18,496 --> 00:07:21,428
But also because 
of genetics and inbreeding.

134
00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:24,326
For two centuries, the Habsburg kings

135
00:07:24,326 --> 00:07:27,228
had married first cousins,
nieces and aunts,

136
00:07:27,333 --> 00:07:30,851
resulting in an onslaught of physical 
and mental ailments

137
00:07:30,944 --> 00:07:33,600
because of their limited gene pool.

138
00:07:34,100 --> 00:07:37,065
The distinctive "Habsburg jaw" 
we see on Philip IV

139
00:07:37,119 --> 00:07:39,560
was inherited from earlier Habsburgs,

140
00:07:39,576 --> 00:07:43,162
and likely the result 
of the Royal Family's inbreeding.

141
00:07:43,607 --> 00:07:45,923
Despite the Spanish Colonial Empire,

142
00:07:45,923 --> 00:07:49,322
the country was almost continuously
in financial difficulties,

143
00:07:49,352 --> 00:07:54,082
and had declared bankruptcies
in 1647 and 1653.

144
00:07:54,749 --> 00:07:57,031
The Spanish royal family 
was so broke

145
00:07:57,031 --> 00:07:59,923
that they often couldn't afford 
firewood to heat the palace,

146
00:07:59,975 --> 00:08:01,800
or bread for the tables.

147
00:08:02,306 --> 00:08:04,431
In fact, when Velasquez died,

148
00:08:04,451 --> 00:08:07,677
the crown still owed him 
17 years of salary payments.

149
00:08:08,367 --> 00:08:11,583
And yet, what does Las Meninas portray?

150
00:08:11,796 --> 00:08:15,212
A wealthy family dressed
in the finest clothes money can buy

151
00:08:15,262 --> 00:08:17,997
surrounded 
by gloriously attired servants

152
00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,464
in an ornate and sumptuous setting.

153
00:08:20,844 --> 00:08:24,087
Like all royal portraiture, 
it is a form of propaganda

154
00:08:24,087 --> 00:08:29,104
designed to show a courtly audience,
dynastic stability and Imperial wealth.

155
00:08:30,154 --> 00:08:34,116
But one thing Philip IV can't disguise
is the lack of a male heir.

156
00:08:34,766 --> 00:08:37,781
He is on his second marriage
by the time of this painting.

157
00:08:38,065 --> 00:08:41,168
He had 10 children with his first wife, 
Isabelle de Bourbon,

158
00:08:41,168 --> 00:08:43,765
but only one son and heir.

159
00:08:43,831 --> 00:08:45,928
His wife died in 1644.

160
00:08:46,029 --> 00:08:48,757
And then in 1646, their son died.

161
00:08:49,693 --> 00:08:52,889
A year later, in a hurry 
to create a new son and heir,

162
00:08:52,909 --> 00:08:57,187
he married his 14-year-old niece, Marianna
— when he was 44.

163
00:08:57,524 --> 00:09:01,406
She gave him five children,
but only two survived to adulthood.

164
00:09:01,585 --> 00:09:04,981
A daughter, Margarita Theresa, 
born in 1651,

165
00:09:04,991 --> 00:09:09,570
the infanta in Las Meninas,
who sadly would die in her teens,

166
00:09:09,588 --> 00:09:12,426
and the future king Charles II of Spain

167
00:09:12,432 --> 00:09:14,798
who was born 5 years after Las Meninas.

168
00:09:15,404 --> 00:09:17,682
Charles however, 
was severely disabled,

169
00:09:17,682 --> 00:09:19,312
thanks to inbreeding,

170
00:09:19,312 --> 00:09:22,122
and he would be the last
of the Spanish Habsburgs.

171
00:09:25,082 --> 00:09:26,780
Velasquez's position at the court

172
00:09:26,780 --> 00:09:29,411
gave him unique access
to the royal collections,

173
00:09:29,411 --> 00:09:32,924
and he would naturally be influenced
by the works he saw every day.

174
00:09:33,188 --> 00:09:35,795
He also visited Italy at least twice,

175
00:09:35,845 --> 00:09:38,792
on extended trips 
to buy paintings for Philipe IV,

176
00:09:38,875 --> 00:09:41,063
and to study the great masters.

177
00:09:41,201 --> 00:09:44,606
He was accompanied on these trips
by his enslaved assistant,

178
00:09:44,636 --> 00:09:48,022
a notable painter in his own right, 
Juan de Pareja,

179
00:09:48,102 --> 00:09:50,645
who would be given
his freedom by Velasquez

180
00:09:50,645 --> 00:09:52,021
shortly after he painted this beautiful and dignified portrait in 1650.

181
00:09:55,621 --> 00:09:58,983
The work's extraordinary lifelike quality, so astonished the papal court, that he was asked to paint Pope InnocentX

182
00:10:03,033 --> 00:10:06,284
, one of the painter's best and most psychologically insightful Works, 
which has been described as "a symphony in red".

183
00:10:09,704 --> 00:10:13,665
It is said that when the pope saw his portrait 
completed, he exclaimed somewhat bewildered: "Troppo Vero" - "too truthful".

184
00:10:18,585 --> 00:10:22,689
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,

185
00:10:26,889 --> 00:10:28,178
he painted while in Rome.

186
00:10:29,468 --> 00:10:32,713
It was Titian and Peter Paul Rubens, who would have more 
influ

187
00:10:32,713 --> 00:10:34,336
ence than any other artist on the development of his style,

188
00:10:36,246 --> 00:10:37,057
and in particular his Royal portraits.

189
00:10:38,377 --> 00:10:41,027
Where, in some cases, we can clearly see stylistic similarities between the great Masters.

190
00:10:44,747 --> 00:10:47,192
This early Titian painting hung in the Spanish Royal Palace when Philip IV came to power

191
00:10:49,432 --> 00:10:52,127
and was used as the standard by which all other Royal equestrian portraits would be judged.

192
00:10:55,153 --> 00:10:57,761
And this, spectacular 
life-sized equestrian Portrait by Velasquez of Philip IV

193
00:11:00,297 --> 00:11:02,921
was clearly influenced by Titian and Rubens, not only in its Simplicity of pose

194
00:11:05,851 --> 00:11:07,834
but also in its depiction of the King as a restrained and powerful ruler.

195
00:11:09,924 --> 00:11:12,631
Velasquez's portrait however is livelier, more elegant and uses a lighter pallette,

196
00:11:15,253 --> 00:11:17,176
and doesn't rely on a highly charged background.

197
00:11:19,099 --> 00:11:22,206
The Flemish painter Rubens, even visited the Spanish Court of Philip IV in 1628.

198
00:11:25,256 --> 00:11:27,934
He was actually on a diplomatic Mission, but still managed to paint five 
portraits of Philipe,

199
00:11:30,464 --> 00:11:31,311
while he was there.

200
00:11:32,081 --> 00:11:34,879
He became great friends with Velasquez and encouraged him to 
go to Italy to study the Italian Masters to move away from chiaroscuro,

201
00:11:40,294 --> 00:11:43,846
to be looser in his brush work, and to adopt a brighter palette colour.

202
00:11:44,876 --> 00:11:49,283
Rubens was not only a successful painter, but he was also 
an important Diplomat who had been knighted despite his humble background.

203
00:11:51,898 --> 00:11:55,023
The ambitious Velasquez, saw Rubens as a role model, and through him he found someone he could identify with.

204
00:11:58,722 --> 00:12:00,360
It was Titian's late works that inspired both Rubens and Velasquez.

205
00:12:03,560 --> 00:12:06,068
Titian used sketchy and Loosely applied brush work, and he would drag and smudge paint over the canvas

206
00:12:08,338 --> 00:12:10,502
to suggest the form, rather than using definitive Strokes.

207
00:12:12,642 --> 00:12:14,409
He also used a very thick rough weave for his canvases, that gave texture to 
his surfaces.

208
00:12:18,669 --> 00:12:19,553
Velasquez would do the same.

209
00:12:20,963 --> 00:12:22,780
Maybe less well known is the influence of Sánchez 
Coello and Antonis Mor, who were in The Royal collection,

210
00:12:27,460 --> 00:12:30,708
and would also be important to how Velasquez
helped Philipe IV Forge a calculated image of power and piety.

211
00:12:35,318 --> 00:12:38,974
Probably the biggest influence on 
Las Maninas though, was a painting from two centuries earlier, "The Arnolfini Portrait: by Jan Van Eyck,

212
00:12:42,631 --> 00:12:44,216
that I discussed in my earlier video.

213
00:12:45,856 --> 00:12:49,053
This too was in the collection of Philip IV, and Velasquez 
would pass it every day on the way to his Studio.

214
00:12:52,323 --> 00:12:55,942
Like Las Meninas, the Arnolfini portrait also has a mirror positioned at the back of the pictorial space,

215
00:12:59,622 --> 00:13:02,561
reflecting two figures who would have the

216
00:13:02,561 --> 00:13:04,561
same point of view as we do.

217
00:13:05,391 --> 00:13:06,391
It also plays with pictorial space, reflections and illusion.

218
00:13:08,401 --> 00:13:10,016
Not only in art but also in literature.

219
00:13:11,475 --> 00:13:16,360
For example, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, is itself a complex multifaceted picture of the relationship between reality and illusion.

220
00:13:24,990 --> 00:13:27,372
Velasquez used a very coarse canvas, and he didn't use many preliminary sketches that we know of,

221
00:13:29,822 --> 00:13:31,354
but rather, he painted directly onto the canvas.

222
00:13:33,064 --> 00:13:35,306
As we can see with these x-rays 
he often changed his work as he was painting it,

223
00:13:37,146 --> 00:13:40,646
and these changes are known as "pentimento"

224
00:13:40,697 --> 00:13:43,981
Velasquez was so experienced by the time of Las Meninas, that the work has very few changes, apart from his self-portrait,

225
00:13:47,061 --> 00:13:49,193
which initially turned his head more towards the infanta.

226
00:13:51,150 --> 00:13:54,611
For much of his early career, the artist used a red ground for underlayer, good for building up contrast and tonal values

227
00:13:58,151 --> 00:13:59,101
- the lights and the darks.

228
00:14:01,031 --> 00:14:03,366
But by the time of Las meninas, he had a much 
looser style,

229
00:14:04,226 --> 00:14:06,644
and diluted his pigments to make them more translucent and fluid, and he painted quite thinly,

230
00:14:08,894 --> 00:14:12,460
so this necessitated using a neutral grey ground, which allowed for a much wider tonal range, greater luminosity,

231
00:14:16,027 --> 00:14:19,235
and a general silvery range of colour.

232
00:14:19,305 --> 00:14:21,174
This was unusual at the time, as 14:21
most canvases were primed using dark colours.

233
00:14:24,864 --> 00:14:33,025
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.

234
00:14:34,135 --> 00:14:39,692
With a painting of this size and complexity, that would not be possible, and we can see one example

235
00:14:39,970 --> 00:14:42,673
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.

236
00:14:48,954 --> 00:14:50,796
With Velazquez, you are always aware
that you are looking at paint.

237
00:14:53,076 --> 00:14:54,571
He doesn't try to hide his brushmarks - quite the reverse.

238
00:14:56,742 --> 00:15:00,350
By the time he came round to Painting Las Meninas,

239
00:15:00,350 --> 00:15:03,074
his technique was at its freest and most fluid,

240
00:15:03,194 --> 00:15:04,628
it is often called a precursor to impressionism,

241
00:15:05,808 --> 00:15:06,525
but it's more than that.

242
00:15:07,375 --> 00:15:09,462
Here, the silver of the tray on 
which the Menina holds the ceramic container

243
00:15:11,472 --> 00:15:13,100
is achieved with a couple of flicks of white paint,

244
00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:16,369
and the flowers are just a few slashes of red.

245
00:15:17,899 --> 00:15:20,169
We often talk about Chiaroscuro, the extreme contrast 
of light and dark,

246
00:15:22,209 --> 00:15:24,324
when we talk about Velasquez, and comparisons are often made with Caravaggio.

247
00:15:26,534 --> 00:15:29,513
He painted his most technically Caravaggio-like picture, "Christ after the flagellation', early on.

248
00:15:32,543 --> 00:15:39,712
But later, he used a more subtle variation of chiarascuro. Still using light to direct our vision but more subtly.

249
00:15:40,412 --> 00:15:42,462
As we can see when we look at Las Maninas in greyscale.

250
00:15:44,582 --> 00:15:47,796
Velasquez uses a dark colour 
palette for Las Meninas, mostly neutral colours and quite limited,

251
00:15:51,366 --> 00:15:55,757
and yet he manages to get a broad 
range of tones with just whites, Blues, yellows, ochres, and small touches of red,

252
00:16:00,148 --> 00:16:01,736
that help draw 
15:59
your eyes around the painting towards ke

253
00:16:01,736 --> 00:16:03,929
y points of interest.

254
00:16:03,929 --> 00:16:06,742
Velasquez even lets us know which colours 
he used, as the palette that the painter holds in his left hand,

255
00:16:09,555 --> 00:16:11,297
has the very pigments he used on Las Maninas.

256
00:16:17,287 --> 00:16:19,208
Between 1640 and 1660, Velasquez mostly painted single portraits.

257
00:16:21,130 --> 00:16:23,531
The composition and structure of Las Meninas was extremely complicated,

258
00:16:26,091 --> 00:16:28,399
and with so many characters it's really like the staging of a piece of theatre or performance art.

259
00:16:30,789 --> 00:16:31,943
It needed to be carefully planned out, with every character seen,

260
00:16:34,613 --> 00:16:35,800
as well as being seen.

261
00:16:36,286 --> 00:16:39,285
In Velasquez's hands, they are fully realised individuals.

262
00:16:40,305 --> 00:16:43,614
Thanks to the 18th century art historian, Antonio Palamino, 
who wrote a 1724 book on Spanish painters,

263
00:16:46,624 --> 00:16:48,979
we know quite a lot about the people in Las Meninas,
including their names.

264
00:16:51,169 --> 00:16:52,346
Palomino spoke to Velasquez 's colleagues after his death,

265
00:16:55,066 --> 00:16:57,210
as well as four of the nine people pictured in the painting.

266
00:16:57,210 --> 00:17:00,297
Most of the members of the Court are grouped around the 5-year-old infanta, Margarita Teresa,

267
00:17:02,917 --> 00:17:05,180
who is attended by two Maninas - or maids in Waiting.

268
00:17:07,360 --> 00:17:10,575
María Agustina Sarmiento, who is passing her water in terracotta pots (so it could be summer).

269
00:17:13,705 --> 00:17:15,762
and Isabel de Velasco, who seems to be in mid-curtsy.

270
00:17:17,819 --> 00:17:19,316
Velasquez had painted the princess 
many times,

271
00:17:20,812 --> 00:17:22,532
but unfortunately she would die before she was out of her teens.

272
00:17:24,492 --> 00:17:26,892
She is in the centre 
of the painting, with the central axis pas

273
00:17:27,302 --> 00:17:27,902
sing between her eyes.

274
00:17:29,292 --> 00:17:30,632
Her face is spotlit by light

275
00:17:30,632 --> 00:17:32,272
coming from an unseen window - top right,

276
00:17:33,826 --> 00:17:35,816
and her white satin dress glows as she is bathed in the sun.

277
00:17:37,696 --> 00:17:41,456
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,

278
00:17:44,856 --> 00:17:47,371
with the dynastic succession resting on her tiny shoulders.

279
00:17:49,531 --> 00:17:52,334
Showing her as a healthy and beautiful princess is important for future marriage prospects.

280
00:17:55,294 --> 00:17:58,517
We don't know the name of the dog, but we know the breed is a Spanish Mastiff, which were bred as guard dogs.

281
00:18:01,527 --> 00:18:03,139
There are few artists with such skill in painting animals as Velasquez!

282
00:18:06,452 --> 00:18:09,418
The dog is being nudged awake by Nicolas Pertusato, an Italian dwarf and Court Jester.

283
00:18:12,595 --> 00:18:15,948
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.

284
00:18:19,108 --> 00:18:21,244
People with dwarfism, were considered curiosities,

285
00:18:23,300 --> 00:18:26,460
as little more than "pets", but Velasquez always gave 
dignity to characters who, due to their profession or condition,

286
00:18:29,340 --> 00:18:30,717
we

287
00:18:30,717 --> 00:18:31,406
re treated as lesser beings.

288
00:18:32,726 --> 00:18:34,029
He shows Maria standing upright, beside the princess.

289
00:18:35,332 --> 00:18:38,662
She has a thoughtful and controlled expression, and is looking directly at us - or the royal couple.

290
00:18:42,102 --> 00:18:44,133
Velasquez entered the service of the 
18:44
palace as a royal servant

291
00:18:46,165 --> 00:18:48,011
and initially was considered a worker, just like the dwarves of the court,

292
00:18:49,761 --> 00:18:52,494
or the jesters. And so he treated them with an empathy, not seen before in Royal portraits.

293
00:18:55,204 --> 00:18:58,670
He never mocked them or caricatured them, and often made them the focal point, as fully fleshed out humans.

294
00:19:02,085 --> 00:19:04,573
In the shadows, this woman is Doña Marcela de Ulloa, the infanta's chaperone,

295
00:19:06,863 --> 00:19:08,667
and she is in mid-conversation with an unidentified bodyguard.

296
00:19:10,347 --> 00:19:12,576
At the rear is Don José Nieto Velázquez, brother of the artist,

297
00:19:14,886 --> 00:19:16,840
and the Queen's Chamberlain. Velasquez had possibly painted him before.

298
00:19:18,510 --> 00:19:20,917
He has paused at the door, pulling back the heavy exterior curtain,

299
00:19:23,127 --> 00:19:25,492
with one foot resting on a step while his weight 
is on his other leg on a different step.

300
00:19:27,712 --> 00:19:30,209
As the Queen's attendant he was required to be at hand to 
open and close doors for her.

301
00:19:32,349 --> 00:19:35,124
We don't know however if he is coming or going, but the light certainly 
pulls us in,

302
00:19:38,074 --> 00:19:41,165
and it looks as if he will usher all of us, out from the created world and into the real world.

303
00:19:44,501 --> 00:19:47,321
In this masterpiece of Illusion,

304
00:19:50,141 --> 00:19:52,636
Velasquez clearly goes beyond the physical confines of space, 
by playing with implied spaces, in this case the rest of the palace.

305
00:19:54,926 --> 00:19:56,883
Velasquez himself is pictured 
emerging from behind the canvas,

306
00:19:58,753 --> 00:20:00,682
moving into our gaze from the shadows into the light,

307
00:20:02,382 --> 00:20:05,101
as he looks at us in the implied space looking at him in the pictorial space.

308
00:20:08,001 --> 00:20:11,854
He is supremely self-confident and 
certainly no subservient courtier.

309
00:20:13,381 --> 00:20:16,055
He is proudly holding the tools of his trade, his Palette is 
turned towards us showing its colours

310
00:20:18,665 --> 00:20:21,099
he also holds a mahlstick, used for steadying the hand 
when doing close work.

311
00:20:23,429 --> 00:20:26,334
And the long round brushes we know he used which created soft edges rather than hard lines.

312
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:31,905
His brush is dipped in paint and perhaps he is considering whether to add some finishing touches,

313
00:20:34,495 --> 00:20:36,697
but it is also possible that the first stroke has not yet been applied.

314
00:20:38,527 --> 00:20:42,044
His hand is just a flurry of rapid brush strokes and it would appear to be metamorphosing into his brush,

315
00:20:45,414 --> 00:20:46,818
as his flesh becomes instrument.

316
00:20:48,818 --> 00:20:51,041
It is audacious that a servant, albeit a courtier and Royal favourite,

317
00:20:53,265 --> 00:20:55,032
has given himself greater prominence than his master.

318
00:20:56,832 --> 00:21:00,405
But it is also inconceivable that Philip IV did not give the concept his Blessing in advance.

319
00:21:04,090 --> 00:21:06,582
In the same way the Queen's Chamberlain is opening 
up the implied space beyond the picture frame,

320
00:21:08,792 --> 00:21:10,548
the mirror here is reflecting the opposite direction,

321
00:21:11,938 --> 00:21:13,351
forward into the viewer's space.

322
00:21:14,831 --> 00:21:17,532
The reflection is of King Philip IV and Maria of Austria, the 
King and Queen.

323
00:21:20,138 --> 00:21:22,609
We know it is a mirror, and not a painting, as everything else is muted and fuzzy,

324
00:21:24,729 --> 00:21:28,272
whereas the image of the king and queen is bathed in light in the beveled mirror giving them an almost divine presence.

325
00:21:32,392 --> 00:21:34,879
That is if we believe the King and Queen are in the same room as the other characters.

326
00:21:41,239 --> 00:21:44,072
The aforementioned historian, Palamino, noted that the mirror which shows the royal couple, was actually a reflection,

327
00:21:46,892 --> 00:21:49,172
not of the real monarchs in the room, but of the canvas Velasquez is working on.

328
00:21:51,453 --> 00:21:53,221
In other words, the couple are not in the room.

329
00:21:55,161 --> 00:21:57,145
This idea is disputed though, as the reflection is not logical.

330
00:21:59,215 --> 00:22:03,439
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,

331
00:22:07,869 --> 00:22:10,972
and which flouts the laws of

332
00:22:11,012 --> 00:22:13,063
Optics. Here too, we see the mirror with this rather blurred reflection.

333
00:22:15,033 --> 00:22:17,029
The constant speculation as to what is happening in this painting,

334
00:22:19,026 --> 00:22:21,639
who is where, and why, is absolutely intentional on the part 
of Velasquez.

335
00:22:24,099 --> 00:22:28,652
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,

336
00:22:33,282 --> 00:22:37,356
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.

337
00:22:41,526 --> 00:22:44,953
The fact that the Queen's Chamberlain is opening the curtain to the Palace, 
sugests that the royal couple are preparing to exit.

338
00:22:48,028 --> 00:22:49,920
This would explained the infanta's gaze towards her parents.

339
00:22:51,670 --> 00:22:54,082
Velasquez, who seems to be peeping out of the darkness realising 
his time is up,

340
00:22:56,522 --> 00:22:59,558
and the Manina to the right of the infanta, who is beginning to curtsy, as she 
looks towards the couple.

341
00:23:02,658 --> 00:23:04,568
There is a palpable sense of anticipation in the air.

342
00:23:06,318 --> 00:23:09,388
If the king and queen are there, and I think they are, then Velasquez has one more trick up his sleeve.

343
00:23:12,238 --> 00:23:14,165
He has placed the king and queen outside of the pictorial space,

344
00:23:15,845 --> 00:23:18,366
standing exactly where we the commoners 
would stand, when we view the paintings.

345
00:23:21,336 --> 00:23:23,351
We are standing right next to King Philipe IV of Spain!

346
00:23:29,525 --> 00:23:31,908
With this painting, Velasquez was out to prove that painting was a noble, intellectual art,

347
00:23:34,228 --> 00:23:35,597
and Las Maninas would be evidence.

348
00:23:36,966 --> 00:23:38,921
It is in fact, a portrait about the painting of a 
portrait.

349
00:23:40,699 --> 00:23:42,157
Let's start with the physicality of the space.

350
00:23:43,807 --> 00:23:46,521
The building was destroyed by fire 
in 1734, but the historical plan still exist.

351
00:23:49,031 --> 00:23:52,470
Las meninas was painted in the Cuarto del Príncipe, or the 
king's quarters, in the Alcazar in Madrid.

352
00:23:56,020 --> 00:23:57,205
Which is the room depicted in the work.

353
00:23:58,365 --> 00:24:02,012
It was once part of 
the apartment occupied by the Crown Prince Don Baltasar Carlos, who had died in 1646.

354
00:24:05,412 --> 00:24:07,961
Once the painting was finished it was planned to be placed in that same room.

355
00:24:10,376 --> 00:24:13,605
An inventory of the room, proved 
that everything Velasquez painted, was really there (apart from the mirror in the back).

356
00:24:16,965 --> 00:24:18,785
The illusion starts with the almost life-size figures.

357
00:24:20,625 --> 00:24:22,800
The painting is enormous, coming in at over 10 ft by 9 ft.

358
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:29,067
The room had these wonderful high ceilings, and the shutters have been placed by Velasquez to 
reveal slivers of light exactly where he wants it.

359
00:24:33,071 --> 00:24:35,000
The main light source is from an invisible window 
to the right

360
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,249
, and another source is the door at the back, that illuminates the figure and sends a pencil thin beam across the floor.

361
00:24:43,759 --> 00:24:46,419
While Las Meninas is clearly a royal painting, it stands out from 
other court paintings,

362
00:24:48,929 --> 00:24:51,775
because the piece was intended to hang in a private room rather than displayed publicly.

363
00:24:54,535 --> 00:24:58,728
It may look formal to us nowadays, but compared to other Royal portraits, Las Meninas is fairly spontaneous, casual, and relaxed.

364
00:25:02,803 --> 00:25:06,897
There is a LOT in this painting; people, animals, Reflections, 
25:07
paintings on the wall, textures, other objects, and movement

365
00:25:10,992 --> 00:25:13,999
- and yet, there is a cohesion to the 
canvas, because it is organised in an orderly composition.

366
00:25:17,072 --> 00:25:20,031
It is balanced perfectly with the 
relatively quiet top half against the busy bottom half.

367
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:25,170
The figures occupy a clear horizontal strip 
across the painting,

368
00:25:27,350 --> 00:25:29,770
but it isn't frieze-like, as they are at different depths into the view.

369
00:25:31,700 --> 00:25:33,618
The first layer is the canvas, the dwarf, and the dog.

370
00:25:35,536 --> 00:25:36,901
Then we have the infanta and her maids.

371
00:25:38,265 --> 00:25:40,087
And then Velasquez, the chaperone and the bodyguard.

372
00:25:41,927 --> 00:25:44,283
The layering continues throughout the picture, and beyond 
the picture frame.

373
00:25:48,191 --> 00:25:52,188
The painting features several frames; the frame of the room in which they are all standing,

374
00:25:52,658 --> 00:25:55,307
the frames of the paintings on the wall, the frame of the canvas Velasquez is working 
on,

375
00:25:58,127 --> 00:25:59,826
the frame of the mirror, and the frame of the door in the background.

376
00:26:01,816 --> 00:26:03,666
These frames provide a 
strong linear and geometric theme to the painting.

377
00:26:05,766 --> 00:26:06,691
You get a feel of structure and organisation.

378
00:26:08,891 --> 00:26:11,173
But, a perfect perspective is not essential to our understanding of this painting,

379
00:26:13,433 --> 00:26:15,141
any more than a 
perfect understanding of optics.

380
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:18,696
What is the focal point? Well there are several possibilities.

381
00:26:20,433 --> 00:26:24,296
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.

382
00:26:28,410 --> 00:26:30,682
We ricochet from one figure to another.

383
00:26:31,342 --> 00:26:33,952
Possible Focus points are the man in the 
doorway, the infanta, or the reflection of the King and Queen.

384
00:26:36,563 --> 00:26:39,001
It seems at first glance that Velasquez is drawing all our attention to the infanta,

385
00:26:42,051 --> 00:26:44,800
and he has used some clever and subtle techniques to draw 
attention to her in such a busy scene.

386
00:26:47,399 --> 00:26:50,258
There is the dress of course, but also she faces towards the main light
source coming from the right,

387
00:26:53,328 --> 00:26:55,043
while most of the other figures are facing away from the light.

388
00:26:56,550 --> 00:26:59,907
Maria Augustina is looking directly at her, and the characters to the left nudge us towards the infanta.

389
00:27:04,087 --> 00:27:07,166
We do know that this painting was not intended to be on public View 
and was really considered a private possession of the king

390
00:27:10,306 --> 00:27:11,845
- for an audience of one.

391
00:27:12,305 --> 00:27:14,290
Which would suggest the focal point is the reflection of the king?

392
00:27:16,350 --> 00:27:19,197
The focus is STILL highly debated 
and always wil

393
00:27:22,197 --> 00:27:26,666
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.

394
00:27:31,876 --> 00:27:33,636
THIS is the key to Velasquez's 
mastery of Illusion.

395
00:27:36,076 --> 00:27:39,136
He uses realism, light, and structure, to pull together the disparate elements 
in an exquisitely balanced painting.

396
00:27:42,136 --> 00:27:45,398
It is an image so complex, that he could only have achieved it at 
this later stage of his life,

397
00:27:48,528 --> 00:27:50,629
with the extensive knowledge he has picked up from a lifetime of painting.

398
00:27:56,639 --> 00:28:00,244
The two paintings on the back wall are important symbolically, and represent two oil paintings by Rubens, Velasquez's role model.

399
00:28:03,834 --> 00:28:06,577
And show scenes from Ovid's "Metamorphoses".

400
00:28:06,647 --> 00:28:08,488
There is a good reason they are there.

401
00:28:09,079 --> 00:28:12,050
If we remember that Velasquez wants desperately to raise his 
profession from "Tradesmen" to "Artistic nobility".

402
00:28:14,870 --> 00:28:17,786
They tell the tale of the superiority, the nobility, 
and the Divine calling of the artist.

403
00:28:21,366 --> 00:28:23,306
In which Mortals prove themselves more skilled than even 
the gods.

404
00:28:25,246 --> 00:28:27,555
Rubens was the most influential Flemish artist of the 17th century,

405
00:28:29,864 --> 00:28:33,133
so by linking himself with Rubens, Velasquez is showing that he had reached the highest tier in European art.

406
00:28:39,843 --> 00:28:42,126
One of the great enigmas in the portrait of Velasquez, is the Red Cross on his tunic.

407
00:28:44,410 --> 00:28:47,792
It is the heraldic symbol of the order of Santiago,

408
00:28:47,802 --> 00:28:49,711
a religious and Military order, founded in the 12th 
century.

409
00:28:51,620 --> 00:28:54,414
He had petitioned the king to make him a knight of Santiago for years, to secure Noble status,

410
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:00,346
citing the link between artistic nobility and social nobility.

411
00:29:02,806 --> 00:29:05,034
But the committee of the order 
of Santiago refused - due to his bloodline.

412
00:29:07,234 --> 00:29:08,888
It was rumoured that his grandparents were Jewish converts.

413
00:29:10,428 --> 00:29:13,559
Luckily for Velasquez, as well as being employer and employee, he and Philip IV were close friends,

414
00:29:16,579 --> 00:29:19,428
and he was finally inducted in the order in 1659, a year before his death,

415
00:29:22,528 --> 00:29:25,857
after the king obtained a dispensation from the Pope to overrule doubts as to the artist's blood and trade.

416
00:29:30,187 --> 00:29:33,241
Diego Velasquez, in many ways was unremarkable, apart from the fact he was appointed court painter.

417
00:29:35,791 --> 00:29:40,350
He had one wife, one Friend (the King), and one Studio (the palace), and spent his whole life climbing the social ladder.

418
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,280
His Knighthood is the culmination.

419
00:29:48,340 --> 00:29:51,755
What makes makes this cross in the painting interesting, is that he was knighted a full 3 years after Las meninas was finished,

420
00:29:54,999 --> 00:29:59,048
and a year before he died, which means that the cross was painted on the artist's tunic years after the painting was created.

421
00:30:03,388 --> 00:30:08,149
Tradition had it, that after the artist's death, Philipe IV 
himself painted the Red Cross of the Knights of Santiago on the tunic, but that's unlikely.

422
00:30:12,769 --> 00:30:16,957
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,

423
00:30:21,146 --> 00:30:23,010
so it was almost certainly Velasquez 
who painted the cross.

424
00:30:24,980 --> 00:30:30,417
We can only imagine the immense satisfaction the artist got from adding 
the cross to the painting, and therefore rubbing the snobby courtier's noses in the fact that he was now one of them.

425
00:30:37,642 --> 00:30:39,743
Velasquez, who was in essence, born a trades person, died a wealthy Noble.

426
00:30:41,844 --> 00:30:46,616
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

427
00:30:51,516 --> 00:30:55,859
in a memorandum after his death: "I am shaken".

428
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Transcript by Margarida Mariz