Introduction
Las Meninas was Velázquez’s largest oeuvre measuring 3.21 m by 2.81 m (Umberger 96). Velázquez’s masterpiece is one that draws sharp criticism ranging from those who find this work as a complete piece with its pictorial features prominent in the artwork, to those who find it hard to interpret its content conclusively (Ancell 159-160; Snyder 542+; Steinberg 48; Bongiorni 88). Despite such disparities, Velázquez’s masterpiece was able to project a day in the life of the royal family while at the same time achieving his artistic ideal. This work explores this artwork in light of the royal family and personal gratification by Velázquez as a celebrated artist.
Velázquez’s Portrait Paying Homage to the Spanish Royal Family
One of the most controversial aspects of the painting is the mirror in the background. However, despite some claiming that this is not a mirror, they agree that this painting depicts the King and the Queen (Brown 303; Umberger 100). The mirror allows King Phillip IV to command a unique presence in the painting that is projected throughout the painting. Standing at the center of this painting is Infanta Margarita who is five years old at the time of this painting (Umberger 97). Margarita was the only daughter of King Phillip IV and Queen Mariana (Umberger 97). Margarita is painted with her head turned slightly away to the left yet her gaze is prominent to the observer’s eye perspective. Her royalty is experienced in the difference in dressing depicted in the painting. Personalities of the royal family were adorned with the finest linen, an aspect that Velázquez inexplicably projects with utmost precision. The hair coloration on Margarita is different from that of other persons in the picture with her hair...
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...Kevin. "Velazquez, Las Meninas: Painting the Reader." Semiotica 2003.144 (2003): 87-100. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 23 Nov. 2013.
Brown, Jonathan. On the Meaning of Las Meninas. In Images and Ideas in Seventeenth-Century Painting (1978). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Kahr, Madlyn, Millner. “Velázquez and Las Meninas.” The Art Bulletin, 57.2 (1975): 225-246. College Art Association. Web. 23 Nov. 2013.
Snyder, Joel. “Las Meninas and the Mirror of the Prince.” Critical Inquiry 11 (1985): 539–572.
Steinberg, Leo. “Velázquez’s “Las Meninas.”” October 19 (1981): 45-54. The MIT Press. Web. 23 Nov. 2013.
Umberger, Emily. “Veláquez and Naturalism II: Interpreting “Las Meninas.”” Anthropology and Aesthetics 28 (1995): 94-117. The President and Fellows of Harvard College acting through the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology. Web. 23 Nov. 2013.
The central focus on the table, in the painting, is what it appears to look like a book of Sor Juana. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, is a huge Mexican, feminist icon. During the seventeenth century, while the Spanish still occupied mexican territory, The catholic church had a significant amount of power. Sor Juana challenged the church by being a controversial figure at the time by her being a well-educated woman, nun, and poet/writer, during a time where men were
Two of the most extensively analyzed works of art are Diego Velasquez's Las Meninas and Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Double Portrait. Both of these artist's talent won them recognition not only during their lifetime but after as well. Both Velasquez and Van Eyck have a justly earned title as the most talented artists of their respective times. A detailed examination of the details and intricacies of these artist's respective masterpieces, their similarities, and what sets them apart not just from each other but from other paintings from their time period and style, will lead the viewer to a better understanding of the mentalities of these gifted artists and how they transcend their respective genres and contemporaries to create their own artistic identities.
Teja, Jesus F. De La. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin. Austin: State House Press, 1991.
water-seller himself stands to the far right of Velazquez’s painting, occupied with pouring water into a glass for the boy. He has lived longer than the other males in the painting and therefore has the most knowledge and the most experience of them all. The
may, charles. "The Cask of Amontillado." Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition . (2007)
Valle’s most significant contribution to the Spanish theatre is his invention of the literary style of esperpento, which is best represented in one of his most famous plays, Luces de Bohemia. Valle created esperpento with the aim of representing the harsh realities of Spanish twentieth century society through the concave lens of grotesque deformation, so that he could present the lives of the Spaniards in the light of mockery and absurdity. During his writing of Luces de Bohemia, the Spanish society has been brought to a halt, along with the lack of political progress and social improvement, therefore this concerning political situation has influenced and steered Valle towards his literary evolution, the exaggerated grotesque, which he though was the only suitable way to represent the shocking reality and problems of Spain. In this way, he could alarm the people to terminate their complacent acceptance of this reality and he could also produce a distancing effect which renders the reader immune to the play’s purpose, thus making the artistic experience more tolerable. His experience in the killing fields was what made him t...
Diego Rivera was deemed the finest Mexican painter of the twentieth century; he had a huge influence in art worldwide. Rivera wanted to form his own painting fashion. Although he encountered the works of great masters like Gauguin, Renoir, and Matisse, he was still in search of a new form of painting to call his own (Tibol, 1983). His desire was to be capable of reaching a wide audience and express the difficulties of his generation at the same time, and that is exactly what h...
Paz, Octavio. "Pachucos and Other Extremes" in The Labyrinth of Solitude and The Other Mexico New York: Grove Press, 1985
Another researcher might scrutinize the Mexican Revolution and say that Mexico is a nation persistently marked by change due to frequent conflict however the revolution was not only essential to the evolution of human rights and equality within Mexico but to an extent it laid the groundwork’s for a successful implementation of artistic movements that did not have to adhere to an authority blueprint.
Art movement’s characteristics vary from nation to nation, but painting can be used as a critique of the socio-political reality in a given nation. It is a creative way to communicate with a population about economic, education and social issues. Therefore, The History of Cuernavaca and Morelos: Crossing the Barranca (ravine) Detail (1929-30) Fresco by Diego Rivera is a good example of how an artist uses his creativity to connect with people in relation to Mexican history. Art is an inspired way to share the complexity and challenge of a community. It can be used a way to respond to them likewise. Therefore, the concept of accessibility takes ingenuity. With his deepen knowledge of European and ancient Mexican art, it was not a documentation
... La Infanta Margarita and her two attendants draw the viewer’s attention, but the dark backdrop dominates the painting with its sheer vastness as it towers over the figures in this scene that are clustered at the bottom. The viewer of the painting is placed in the eyes of the king and queen, as they stand both inside and outside of the painting, reflected in the mirror as observers only. They can watch this scene as the royal couple watched their country crumble because of government debt and loss of territories. Diego Velázquez had always wanted to paint the truth, whether in the bodegón paintings of his earlier years or in the royal portraits he was commissioned during his career as the court painter. He did so in Las Meninas, during the final decade of his life, by depicting the condition of Spain’s government through an informal day-to-day scene of palace life.
Lewis, Micheal J. "The Explicator." Refining a Fortunato Amontillado 69.4 (2011): 179-83. Literary Reference Center .Web. 12 May 2014.
de la Cruz, Juana Ines. "Hombres Necios." A Sor Juana Anthology. Ed.Alan S. Trueblood. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1988.
The word art is an encompassing one, vastly interpreted and with multiple definitions. In the case of Picasso's painting Guernica, art informs, educates and expresses. Its power lies in its ability to capture and compel an audience nearly six decades after the modern world's "other" day of infamy. To understand fully the painting that evolved out of the Spanish painter's outrage, one must know its context. "Why do you think I date everything I do? Because it is not sufficient to know an artist's works--it is also necessary to know when he did them, why, under what circumstances" (Picasso). An appreciator who knows the saga of Spain's historical fishing village is given a depth of experience that only a genius like Picasso could portray --"it may well be the most terrifying document on the horrors of war ever to be produced by an artist" (Wertenbaker 126).
The Web. 12 Mar. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. http://pablo-picasso.paintings.com/biography/>. Warncke, Carsten & Peter.