The President and Fellows of Harvard College Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Velzquez and Naturalism II: Interpreting "Las Meninas" Author(s): Emily Umberger Source: RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 28 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 94-117 Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College acting through the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20166932 . Accessed: 25/01/2011 19:50
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94

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Figure 1. Diego Velazquez, Museo del Prado.

LasMeninas,

1656. Oil on canvas, 321 x 281 cm. Museo

del Prado, Madrid. Photo: Courtesy of

Velazquez

and naturalism

II

Interpreting LasMeninas
EMILY UMBERGER

(1599-1660) group portrait of Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas has been the object of 1656, (fig. 1), in since its intellectual rediscovery much speculation In recent it the late nineteenth has decades century. the subject of divergent become interpretations and even sharp disagreement.1 As characterized by Svetlana those, like herself, Alpers (1983), the split is between in its who see the painting's meaning primarily representational revolutionary qualities and those who seek to reconstruct an iconography. Alpers emphasizes of formal qualities to meaning the contribution and, an recent with of number scholars, along increasing declares art history's traditional iconographie approach too limited to handle the task of comprehending form and meaning objects both she together.2 In the case of Las Meninas to the stories invented to explain the activities and to the motivations hypothesized

is part of an intended message. While representation not suggesting a plot, however, Ido argue that Las Meninas contains a traditional that alludes iconography to verbally articulated ideas through allegory. to this alternate reading I refer to the As background no dar nada (To give all and to give play Darlo todo y the court contemporary, nothing) by Velazquez's Pedro Calder?n de la Barca poet-playwright In the play Calder?n used the story of (1600-1681). to express Alexander the Great and his painter Apelles have been thoughts on theoretical matters that would to both himself, as a verbal artist, and a visual artist. Velazquez's as Velazquez, biographer Antonio Palomino later compared Philip IV's (r. 1621 of concern visits 1665) habit of visiting his studio with Alexander's to watch Apelles at work (1947:904), and Brown has that the representation of such a visit suggested was probably in Las Meninas (through implication) meant Brown's precedent.3 interpretation centers, however, on Velazquez's private ambitions and the king's support of these in an argument involving the struggles of seventeenth-century artists for recognition of the liberal arts status of It is the premise of painting (1978; 1986:253-264).4 this paper that such personal issues are reflected in form in the painting's imagery, but that generalized in allusions to theoretical issues they are embedded to recall the classical

depicted for the painting's creation, as in Jonathan Brown's study of 1978. I, too, am dissatisfied with the current I see the iconographies trend in art historical exegesis. as too narrowly suggested so far for Las Meninas conceived, recognize

and Iagree with Alpers that they fail to the extent to which the painting's mode of

I thank David a student Fahlman, Francesco

on Rosand and Lisa Vergara for helpful suggestions Elmas, Betsy paper on the subject of Las Meninas. Cynthia Vivien Linda McAllister, and Fryd, Anthony Gully, on content, Pellizzi valuable provided suggestions

I am grateful to the School of Art of and editorial matters. translations, for covering Arizona State University the cost of photographs, and the of Fine Arts of Arizona State University for a research grant to College I thank Dr. Angeles in 1994. Finally, travel to Madrid Garc?a Pardo for her hospitality and Alex. 1. This Velazquez intellectual during my stay inMadrid. For Emily, Margaret, reading paintings by court and its Prado), Cited see here

involving portraiture, and through portraiture, In addition, I suggest that in general. representation of Calder?n's play provides an articulate exposition these issues as they might have been voiced by himself. Velazquez The argument ultimately paintings on the back wall
3. Palomino's Velazquez's of biography life (1947:891-936).

is the second

of two articles

Umberger are only those works bibliography, itwas what called

of the Spanish against the background For the first, on Los Borrachos climate. (1629, on Las Meninas. has been written (1993). Much

hinges on two darkened of the depicted space, and,

1715-24 is the most of complete its value on as a

to the arguments For further pertinent presented. to see Brown (1987). For references (1978) and Wohl at different dates and where itwas located, of see

For confirmations

(1979:502-503). L?pez-Rey are centered 2. Reactions the concepts of recent overview see Cassidy

its later date, see Brown and (1986:253-256) primary source, despite Veliz The biographer of Velazquez's (1986:141-142). early life was Francisco his father-in-law and teacher 1:155-166). Pacheco, (1956, 4. See also Kahr's similar explication of the painting's on the importance which, however, puts more emphasis iconography, of the Apelles to northern gallery story and the painting's relationship (1975; 1976:chap. 3). pictures

on Panofsky's and iconology iconography of the problems of attaching (1993:3-15).

explication (Panofsky meaning

1939

of

1972). For a to paintings,

96

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1995

in doing so, grapples with another problem that lurks in Las Meninas. behind all discussions of meaning That should visible these barely is, subjects mythological within such a self-consciously naturalistic composition be seen as performing the traditional allegorical function of the painting-within-a-painting? Although one has addressed it is one on this point directly, which modern Las Meninas scholars seem to vacillate. was appreciated scholars by nineteenth-century art movements, conditioned notably by contemporary its for spontaneous arrangement, Impressionism, and effects of light and color (for brushwork, our Justi 1889:414-422). example, Notwithstanding was that naturalism part of a knowledge Velazquez's we are of different influenced very ideas, complex by to the neglect of other aspects these earlier perceptions of his art. We now know the extent to which the painterly inwhich Velazquez worked was palace environment infused with allegorical the theatrical thinking?in performances, paintings on the walls, poems composed even everyday we are and courtiers, by speech?but still uneasy about suggesting the presence of such in a "modern" painting artifices like Las Meninas. In this view of Velazquez's naturalism we follow, very different feelings and motivations, most critical contemporary, the Velazquez's conservative Italianate artist and theorist Vicente Carducho in Carducho knew Velazquez (1576-1638).5 the 1620s when the latter was adapting to the demands of his new position at court, and, as a hostile rival, he to group the young artist with those extremists wished as direct and whom he characterized disapprovingly nature. imitators of uneducated The testimonies of his of the however, and the evidence demonstrate that Velazquez paintings themselves to a superior achieved aspired to (and eventually naturalism but the degree), not untempered ideal of "learned painting" (docta contemporary himself.6 He was pintura) as espoused by Carducho biographers, albeit with no

of his predecessors,7 and the literary figures of classical and contemporary authors.8 Las Meninas must be recognized as an intentionally inextricable mix of nature and art, with the elements of inventions art identifiable to the seventeenth-century viewer to on his knowledge. greater or lesser degree depending in the Thus, the task of the modern iconographer a a one. of such is In addition difficult reading painting to reconstructing the historical events and artistic the painting might be against which background or he must she understood, attempt to hypothesize which events and issues are alluded to in its clues; how these clues are structured within the pictorial how the various ideas evoked might be composition; connected court viewer; by the seventeenth-century and which viewers, readings, and additional resonances the artist might have anticipated.

The pictorial The

structure

in Velazquez's oeuvre, largest composition 3.21 meters measuring high by 2.81 meters wide, a view of everyday Meninas conveys, seemingly,

Las

life. The room depicted is a real space, an palace in the Madrid the Alc?zar, before its apartment palace, destruction by fire in 1734 (Brown 1978:99-101; Moffitt The paintings on 1986:166-167). 1980; Orso the walls, Spanish copies of mythological compositions in inventories as having hung by Rubens, are recorded on those walls of (Orso 1986:chap. 5). The occupants the room are real people, members of the court, all but one identified by name (Palomino 1947:920-922; S?nchez subjects one might expect Cant?n 1952). Although of this canvas and its size to be more the

mere

painter of reality who "relied on nature for everything" (Pacheco 1956, 2:13), but he studied equally and used the scientific treatises of his profession, the visual
are known from his treatise of

use of types and models was not considered a in the seventeenth itwas a necessary century; for "learned painting." Carducho, in fact, placed the study prerequisite to the practices of the great works of the past in opposition of a nature directly on the like Caravaggio, who painter (putatively) copied 7. The inventive exercise canvas convey (for example, meaning; see, 1633:52r, 54r, 89r-89v). for instance, Umberger effected Cant?n Such on could quotes Los Borrachos in our also

Meninas (1993). (1993) and Seidel on Las

written thoughts soon after a period of strife between the during and published two artists (see Umberger 1993). in his biography 6. Palomino learning Velazquez's emphasizes to the artist, it is 930). Given Carducho's (1947:891-895, antipathy was to be the most learned artist of ironic that the mature Velazquez of learning went beyond definition Yet Velazquez's the blatant moral message and excluded envisioned as a post-Tr?dentine thinker, thought necessary. 5. Carducho's 1633, thinking 8. Among the early authors who on Velazquez were S?nchez this change (1925), who by the breadth library indicated

the publishing of his learning; extent to which Charles another

inventory of Velazquez's first revealed the Diego ?ngulo I?iguez (1947), who he studied the compositions of predecessors; and in his study of Las Meninas de Tolnay and (1949), who great composition, precedents Las Hilanderas, first discussed for these two and literary allusions, that is,

his acquaintance. what Carducho that the older

compositional iconography.

man,

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism II 97

to formal portraiture and history painting, appropriate the positioning, of the figures gestures, and movements are natural and spontaneous, as was customary in (Brown 1978:87). room of the apartments is the principal to the Infante Baltasar Carlos previously assigned (1629-1646), Philip IV's son and heir to the throne. After his death the space was redecorated?probably genre painting The setting by the artist himself?and, although not his regular seems it to at been used by Velazquez have workshop, least on this one occasion At the (Orso 1986:173-174). center of the composition stands the five-year-old at the time the only child of Philip IV Infanta Margarita, and his second wife, Mariana, whose images are on in reflected the mirror the wall behind her. With regal poise and adult dignity, the child has turned her head and looks out into the space occupied by the two flanking maids-of-honor spectator, while (meninas) from noble families tend to her. The kneeling Do?a Mar?a Augustina Sarmiento offers her a drink from a small pitcher, and Do?a Isabel de Velasco bends toward her while glancing in the same direction as the to Further the princess. left, Velazquez himself, holding brush and palette, leans out from behind a large canvas and likewise gazes at the spectator. In the right a is and a dwarf, the adult Marib?rbola, foreground the child Nicol?s Pertusato, who places his midget, foot on the back of a large dog. Behind them a woman as a widow, the lady-in-waiting Do?a Marcela de Ulloa, and her unidentified escort converse. At the back of the room to the right of the mirror Jos? Nieto in a brightly lit doorway, pauses to Velazquez, standing look back across the depicted space. Nieto, as the dressed in charge of the queen's (aposentador) held an office comparable to Velazquez's household, own?the (The king's aposentador (Alpers 1983:32-33). two men had the same maternal surname but seem not to have been related.) Finally, although unseen, the object of attention?whose is presence before the painting six the of nine of the glances implied by people?is to be either the king alone or generally acknowledged the king and queen, posing for a portrait or entering the room to witness the creation of the painting. Such in an account of the history of to Palomino, itself. According "this and so very esteemed by his Majesty, see much that he visited frequently to it painted; and likewise the queen Our Lady Do?a Mariana of Austria came down many times and the princesses, and ladies" is described Las Meninas painting was (1947:921). an event chamberlain

Despite

all of

presentation, and revealed

the distinguish its style of painting" for Las (1961:51). What were the visual precedents Meninas? The portrayal of a room in a palace or noble is reminiscent of a type house decorated with paintings common in the Netherlands, called the gallery picture, from windows of the room?with and the angle of presentation on one side, door opening in back, and seen in both reaches?is Netherlandish empty upper and German precedents (Kubier 1966; Kahr 1975). Some gallery pictures also include patrons and artists, either Alexander and Apelles or contemporary patrons and artists depicting Even the device of (Kahr 1975:230-237). an artist/performer within the room while is the presence of his subject/patron outside northern

composition. Emmens has commented, 'invention' of the canvas

of reality and their natural years of scholarly perusal have suggested a complex of artifices behind the This is a very structured reality; as J.A. "one must

its qualities

(Kubier 1966; examples 1981:46-47). Finally, the mirror that this last effect in Las Meninas, accomplishes apparently itself an invention for the composition (Orso 1986:170), has as a distinguished Arnolfini Portrait predecessor Steinberg which was (1434) by Jan van Eyck (before 1395-1441), at in the Spanish royal collections the time (Tolnay 1949:34).9 In contrast to these suggested sources for the setting few have been offered for the disposition of figures. What observers consider an arrangement without obvious precedents, reflects elements however, vaguely of earlier Italianate groupings and poses. From this point of view, the figures fall into three groups: the six in the foreground, the conversing pair in the right middle ground, and the single figure in active pose between the room and a more distant space in the Similar arrangements and figure types are background. as Tintoretto's Christ in the found in such compositions House of Mary and Martha of Moses Veronese's Finding Purification of the Temple (fig. 2; The Frick Collection, New York). These, too, have a multifigure foreground group, a conversing couple to the side and somewhat behind the group (one with a hand at breast level), and a figure in active pose (twisting, with one arm raised in size to introduce and one leg bent) and diminished (Pinakothek, Munich), (Prado), and El Greco's

implying found in earlier

9. See also Seidel's recent interpretation of Las Meninas Portrait in reverse (1993:190-205), "repainting" of the Arnolfini idea brought up again later in this essay.

as a an

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1995

Figure 2. ElGreco, Purification of the Temple, ca. 1595-1600. Oil on canvas, 42 x 53 cm. The Frick Collection, New York. Photo: Courtesy of The Frick Collection.

an opening

or corridor

of space

into the more

distant

background. own oeuvre even in Velazquez's Without precedent is the careful orchestration of colors, light effects, and simultaneously shapes in a system of correspondences figures and objects across the linking and contrasting them along diagonal canvas, or linking and distancing lines from front to back, in an almost inexhaustible In addition to demonstrating number of combinations.10 the different aspects of his art these devices were most likely meant by the artist to provide an intellectual puzzle especially its structure is the complex for the educated viewer. of the Essential to geometry

(the lines of the room itself and the composition patterned arrangement of rectangular shapes on the and contrasts between back wall), the correspondences these shapes, and their relationships with the figures the results of this structuring are before them. Among its the puzzling perspective of the composition?with in different three different centers play between and reconstructions?and the implied correspondences in the space interactions with imagined spectators before the canvas. is the grouping of Also basic to the composition in twos and threes. All figures in the painting, motifs fall into with the exception of the centralized princess, in black, the two pairs: the two aposentadores the dwarf and the midget, the two chaperons, meninas, and the royal couple (notice also the balance between is not inflexible: males and females). This coupling the further pairings suggest contrasts, as between of three are the female and and dwarf; groups princess

Surrender

10. The only comparable composition of Breda (1635, Prado). There

descriptions following shifting

of Las Meninas (for example, For one it as a fixed structure. analyzes see Steinberg visual qualities, (1981).

in this respect is his are a number of fascinating The 1973:3-16). Foucault, that considers its

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism

II 99

also formed, as in the flanking meninas and central Kahr also (see 1981:53). 1975:225; princess Steinberg twos and threes is set up in the The play between rectangles on the back wall, the two large paintings above the three smaller frames of the mirror flanked by two doors. These are compositionally linked with the in the and the trio of females pair of aposentadores important is the anchoring of the two foreground. Most and the the distant Nieto Velazquez palace officials, to the architectural closer Diego Velazquez, setting. One would pair them on a diagonal axis because of their similar black garb, three-quarter-length poses, and to the of the brown of the door placement right grids same At and the back of the canvas, the respectively. time, their heads are roughly centered under the two stands large paintings on the back wall, but Velazquez in front of the left-hand door and Nieto stands behind the right-hand door. In this manner they are linked to in both two- and three the geometric framework dimensional while readings of the composition, framing the central mirror image of the monarchs; but they are from each other and create depth in the composition through their relative scale. In contrast, the heads of the three females in the are to different the located (at levels) foreground right of the lower trio of door frames and mirror. Thus, as the eye moves from the background wall to foreground also distanced focal point shifts from the figures, the composition's mirror between the two doors (and their associated male figures) to the princess between the two meninas. at Her head is the actual, horizontal center of the
canvas.

in front and the mirror, the door, and the princess them (Steinberg 1981:51). between into The projection of these structural relationships the area before the painting gives rise to another set of questions concerning what cannot be seen: the in of the observer(s) identity, and viewpoint(s) canvas on which it, the subject of the is painting, and the source of the mirror Velazquez to speculate is compelled image. The (modern) viewer number, front of on these questions because of the near life-size scale of invites entrance that seemingly the composition (Alpers the invisibility of the image on the canvas, 1983:31), of the of all, the unusual outward orientation out six nine where of the look personages painting, into the viewer's space and the mirror ?mage seems to is in that space. There are three schools of imply who on is the subject of the canvas: that Velazquez thought is Las Meninas the that he portraying princess, painting the king and queen posed itself, or that he is depicting to the mirror image. The mirror is thought to according reflect the actual forms of the king and queen as they across the room, the center of the see themselves paints (either a portrait of painting on which Velazquez the king and queen or the mirror image in Las or both the king and queen as seen by Meninas), themselves and the center of the canvas as seen by an observer to their right, simultaneously. Ibelieve the to most views be the convincing. following First, it is important to credit George Kubler's insight (1985) that the mirror reflection cannot represent the across the room, king and queen's view of themselves as this would be optically If they were impossible. and, most

is the of the composition Adding to the complexity form a pair fact that the mirror and the right doorway of within the group of three lower frames?because their luminosity and the similar scale of the figures they contrast to the dark, closed door to the left contain?in and behind Velazquez. Further, the mirror's surface and the bright area of the door are of about the same size However, draped from one side. the ghostly ?mages of the king and queen contrast with the from a dark background emerging dark silhouette of Nieto against the bright light. There these two areas. The is, in fact, a tension between and level and both have curtains on the back wall, but the eye is the pulled doorway by the vanishing point of its enclosed the lines of the architecture located behind as as well the the of brighter light figure, Nieto, the focus of the Thus, shifts, composition background. to which clues the viewer chooses at a according between three points in a triangle, particular moment, is centered toward

their own reflections from such a distance, observing these would be tiny and much of the room would be reconstruction Instead, Charles Moffitt's encompassed. of the perspective from which the mirror is seen is most convincing (1980:281-287, fig. 3). Moffitt suggests that if the viewer stands to the right of the mirror and opposite Nieto, as the location of the he is seeing the scene point demands, through a doorway at the opposite end of the room (as in the plan of palace). From this point of view revealed the mirror reflects whatever is at the same angle to its must it that be is, left, reflecting a portion of the canvas on which Velazquez is painting. As Moffitt points out vanishing this iswhat Palomino (1980:286), says of the mirror If viewer is further the from the mirror image. standing than the canvas (as he is here), the part of the canvas so that the bust in the mirror ismagnified visible of the It ismost monarchs its expanse. occupy portraits meant to mirror is then that the reflect the likely

mirror

100

RES 28 AUTUMN

1995

Figure 3. Peter Paul Rubens, Pallas and Arachne, ca. 1636. Oil on panel, 27 x 38 cm. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. Photo: Courtesy of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Williams Fund.

in some form includes a double portrait canvas, which of the king and queen (see also Snyder and Cohen 1980, who come to the same general conclusions). Ifone accepts the idea of one intended viewpoint or it is logical to accept Brown's hypothesis that observer, the one observer for whom itwas created was Philip IV (Brown, 1978:90; 303, note 62). As Brown 1986:259, notes, Las Meninas was probably made for the space in which office itwas later recorded as hanging, the king's in the summer quarters (pieza del despacho de on to located the floor above and accessible verano), room by a stairway beyond the doorway the depicted that the viewer enters inMoffitt's reconstruction. Moffitt also suggests that the painting could have been hung in this office directly above the spot occupied by the viewer of the painting (1980:277, fig. 2). theorists would concur with Seventeenth-century modern scholars that a one-point (Albertian) in a position of power, but puts the viewer perspective as we will see, in a painting like Las Meninas, which, in every respect addresses the king, it is not logical to think of the artist as implying his own presence at this is, of course, his vision, but like a point. The painting theatrical in various that it resembles palace production so the is that the commands ways, setting staged king

Brown 1986:303, (Varey 1984:401; The queen's 11). 1991:82-85, fig. presence beside him, also as in the theater, seems implied by the mirror image, but this is not demonstrable.11 the perspective note 62; Greer

to be

Events and Recent

issues

interpretations of Las Meninas iconographie as variations on a theme: most be characterized in scholars who focus on this aspect of the painting some way or other see it against the background of contemporary arguments about the seventeenth-century social and intellectual status of the art of painting and its practitioners. Some include the large paintings on should the back wall in the argument and some do not. In the

11. Some observer presence

other

or a primary observers suggest multiple to account for the artist's than the king. Alpers's wish as main viewer, as well as inside the canvas outside, scholars

I also (1983:37, 42, note 10) is both too literal and too modern. to allow for an that the artist did not map out the perspective belive in this position viewer the vanishing anonymous point. opposite Those mirror who argue for the Mestre (for example, latter put the king and queen Fiol 1972). opposite the

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism

II 101

of these interpretations Charles de Tolnay role for them (1949:32-33). suggested an allegorical The paintings were Spanish copies of Rubens's of two scenes from Ovid's compositions contest between the weaving Metamorphoses, and Arachne and the music contest Pallas/Minerva now exist only in oil between Apollo and Pan, which sketches that in depicting (figs. 3-4). Tolnay suggested contests between gods and mortals these ?mages may have represented for Velazquez the triumph of divine art over human craft, in keeping with his self-depiction in the act of inspired gazing rather than the application of paint. (Tolnay actually misidentified the second but this does painting as one of Apollo and Marsyas, not affect his general interpretation.) Kubler's article of 1966 brought this type of reading in line with a more issue dwelt on in contemporary treatises, and tangible of great importance to Spanish painters. He saw the that painting, mythological paintings as demonstrating as represented by the Arachne picture, was a liberal art equal to music, as represented by the Apollo and Pan one (correctly identified first in Emmens 1961:57). In Spain, at the time, painters were still fighting the battle for the recognition of liberal arts status, which involved their exemption from taxation and conscription. Kubier also noted that by representing himself in the same

earliest

room with the king, Velazquez was subtly referring to the idea of the nobility of painting, by association with
monarchs.

The most widely interpretation along this accepted see also, Kahr line is Brown's (1978; 1986:253-264; 3). Influenced by Jos? Ortega y 1975; 1976:chap. Gasset's biography of Velazquez of 1943 as well as those by Tolnay and Kubier, (1972:84-106), Brown placed Las Meninas in a more personal context, to nobility, his bid pretensions relating it to Velazquez's in the 1650s for knighthood in the prestigious order of Santiago. As stated at the outset, Brown has suggested that the implied presence of the king outside the have reminded the mid-seventeenth painting would century viewer of the relationship between Alexander as well as several more recent artists and Apelles, knighted by kings, notably Titian and Rubens, whose examples were typically cited as proof of the elevated status of painting. Brown also sees the sophistication as aiming to the composition of Las Meninas demonstrate that painting was an intellectual pursuit rather than just a craft, thus supporting Velazquez's of

personal ambitions: a practitioner of Velazquez's ability was more than a gifted manual laborer, and was therefore entitled to maintain his birth claims to noble status while practicing the liberal art of painting.

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Figure 4. Peter Paul Rubens, Apollo and Pan, ca. 1636. Oil on panel, 26.5
x 38 Mus?es cm. Mus?es Royaux des Royaux des Beaux-Arts. Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Photo: Courtesy of

102

RES 28 AUTUMN

1995

Granted Alexander

equal more closely

the currency of these ideas and issues, in another context of and Apelles appeared to artists, which importance seventeenth-century fits with both the allegorical of Las Meninas?2 and They are the nature and clues

representational qualities featured in theoretical discussions about function of portraiture and, on a practical level, the problem of creating truthful portraits that are not in their reality. The original anecdote, which offensive involves Apelles' actually portrayal of another found in Pliny's Natural History (Book 35:90): king,

painting as a liberal art is the document cited usually by art historians as indicative of his ideas, but the dramas are equally, if not more, interesting for their implicit and at times explicit theoretical content.16 like Velazquez, faced the problem of Calder?n, defended persons, actions, and royalty, whose he portrayed, albeit allegorically and in terms. He also used painted and sculpted generalized in a number of portraits as important dramatic elements as in artists and characters several (Ter major plays, addressing characters Horst In fact, Calder?n used the visual arts to 1982b). stand for his own art at a time when poetry and related. A court closely painting were considered one is of the of Darlo todo, portraitist protagonists at in the plot, and the several portraits appear points nature of portraiture is dwelt on at length. One scene addresses the same issues alluded to in Las below) but also contains details to the contemporary Spanish court. referring particularly In this scene Alexander is judging a painting contest between portraits of himself by Apelles and two other has a bad artists, Zeuxis and Temanthes. Alexander (to be argued

is

He also painted a portrait of King Antigonos who was blind of one eye, being the first to devise a means of concealing the infirmity by presenting his profile, so that the absence of the eye would be attributed merely to the position of the sitter, not to a natural defect, for he gave only the part of the face which could be shown uninjured. Pliny 1968:127 is repeated in Francisco Pacheco's The anecdote into the arte El de la pintura (1649), translated treatise, of of opposing categories typical language seventeenth-century Spanish treatises (and their Italian "Apelles was praised for having predecessors):13 in profile King Antigonos, who was blind in portrayed one eye, having posed him from the healthy side. . . . can be used with This is a discretion (prudencia) which to the truth (la without detriment persons, important verdad)" (1956, 1:105).14 The most interesting restatement of the story is found in Calder?n's play Darlo todo y no dar nada, which was performed twice at court in the years seemingly 1651 and/or before Las Meninas was painted?in 1653.15 Calder?n's
12. See also Alpers's note 5). (1983:41, 13. On such artistic for Spain (1988:15-33) 14. For prudencia, and discreci?n; parecido. 15. The December

not only Meninas

eye, which Temanthes does not represent at all, while Zeuxis represents the fault in great detail. Apelles in compromises by representing Alexander a so over view his bad that shadow falls three-quarter thereby playing down the fault without omitting is rewarded by being appointed altogether. Apelles the of chamber painter (pintor de c?mara). The scene worth quoting at length: side, Alexander
not my

it is

(upon examining Timanthes' painting): This is

portrait.

deposition
critique

of 1677

inwhich

he

of this strain of

interpretation et al. :chap. 2).

see McKim-Smith in general, polarities and Michael Baxandall for Italy (1971 other authors lo natural, as having Mariana's use the words respeto, semejanza, imitaci?n, been

for verdad: is recorded for Queen

decoro, and lo

Timanthes: Why? Alexander: Because Ido not see in it that spot (mancha), which is the blemish (borr?n) on my face, your brush having put all its skill into disguising it. In not telling me of it (decfrmela) you have been a flatterer (lisonjero), it being almost treason (traici?n), that you lie to me inmy face. This portrait gives a vile example, inwhich no one speaks to his king of his defects. Then how [can] he emend them if he never [comes] to know of them? . . .
Give me yours Zeuxis.

play 1651

birthday

on 22 performed and in celebration

of the soul (todo), without physical of Velazquez's below. technique 16. As first noted by Curtius art theories (1963). For discussion other details See further discussion on Calder?n's

was in 1653 (Reichenberger her recovered It 1979:203). good health nuevas escogidas. in 1657 in Octava parte de comedias published in the final scene as relating to The title ismade comprehensible to Apelles, in a complex the giving of Campaspe play on the multiple senses of the words Itmight 1269-1270). (see Calder?n 1959:1223, also as referring to the giving of "all and nothing" in senses. in multiple In a the painted portrayals of the characters, again sense this would entail the revealing of superficial likeness negative be understood through positive physical sense, details itwould (darlo todo), but not the soul (nada)) in a entail the revealing of true likeness, including

(nada). of

in his article of Calder?n's

1948

art by see Hesse and (1952, on Calder?n literary historians, is especially work Gates (1961); and Ter Horst, whose Velazquez); Darlo discussion 3, where (1982a:part important for the following ideas about todo Wilson is treated (1974). in detail; 1982b). For Calder?n's deposition, see

Umberger:

Velazquez

and

naturalism

II

103

Zeuxis
callo

(aside): At least in this one

nada).

Iquiet nothing (no le

Alexander: Yours ismore

culpable. Inwhat, Zeuxis: Sire?

like (parecido); but is no less

On the theoretical has Apelles solve level, Calder?n the problem of the sometimes goals of conflicting likeness and decorum, what Pacheco had called truth in royal portrayals, a challenge and prudence, for has Zeuxis Velazquez throughout his career. Calder?n and Temanthes have represent the two sides, which extremes of effrontery become the unacceptable like lying flattery (lisonja). Apelles, extremes. the both Velazquez, Although contest of 1627 involved history painting, the issue of in portraiture was at the heart of the naturalism conflicts dividing the court artists. Philip called for the (atrevimiento) and avoided in fact, to defend Velazquez contest, against accusations that he could "paint only a head," with it directly without implication that he copied improvement, the

Alexander: In that I see my defect in it, so blatant, that I believe you have put all your effort into telling me of it; so that Iam as offended by this as the other; since that which in one is flattery (lisonja) in the other is effrontery (atrevimiento). Neither is this an example for the world ... no one ignorant should speak his feelings to his king's face [literally, to his king in his face]; if to silence them is a type of treason, it is no less a form of
disrespect see your to declare portrait. them openly. . . . Apelles, let us

Apelles:
Alexander: speak

Ioffer it with apprehension.

Why? to his king, . . . Only since how one must you know . . . the fault is neither said nor

quieted, [with] half of the face casting a shadow on the other half. You have found a good way of speaking and quieting discretely . . . [in] leaving [the defect] underneath you inform (awsa) me that Ihave it,with such decorum (decoro), that respect cannot be offended.
... my No pintor one de but Apelles c?mara. can portray me from now on, as

thus risking the inclusion of insulting that he was improprieties, and, additionally, incapable of more ambitious compositions. The imagery in Las Meninas differs from the play, but there are unmistakable parallels: the king is in the artist's studio; his portrait is being painted; there is a in the mirror to the truth of the portrayal; reference to artistic competition in both there are allusions one of these paintings depicts paintings; and allegorical portrays her superiors with atrevimiento is not a portrait in the strict sense but is (her creation still a portrayal of sorts). The tie to court drama is also in its in the painting's apparent stagelike presentation, to the king as principal viewer, and in being addressed the obvious pairings of people and motifs. The pairing of comparable but contrasting characters and concepts (the latter often through word plays) is constant throughout Calder?n's plays.18 The structure of Las to evoke a Meninas mimics this, perhaps intentionally, its of imagery. playlike literary reading identified by Palomino as scenes The two paintings, from the Metamorphoses by Rubens (1947:921), were Juan son-in-law, actually copies by Velazquez's Bautista del Mazo, of oil sketches that Rubens had made for the series of mythological subjects to decorate the Torre de la Parada.19 They were hanging as depicted even in Palomino's time (L?pez-Rey are 1979:502) and, although they only dimly an artist who

Calder?n Calder?n plays:

1959:1230-1231

truths unpleasant (Greer 1991:79-82). is of interest here is how this version reflects his What to theories on art and how he changed the anecdote itmore particular to the court. He made the king make Alexander rather than the visiting Antigonos, thus immediately bringing to mind Philip and Velazquez, and he structured the scene to allude to an important event of the 1620s. By expanding the simple example into a contest of one artist's cleverness involving several artists, with the winner receiving a position at court, he was recalling the painting contest of 1627 between court artists that Philip held on Velazquez's he made him usher of the and after which as to be followed by his appointment was de c?mara This 1993:25-26). pintor (Umberger in Velazquez's just the first of many competitions were a court appointments career; all of his subsequent behalf chamber?soon matter contested of contention, with the artist's candidacy and the appointment granted through intercession of the monarch.17 always the

contemporary the difficulty of delivering to those in power diplomatically

is treating a broader theme found in political treatises as well as other of his

18. Such pairings also, of course, reflect the more general habit of ideas as opposing treatises. pairs in theoretical classifying see Brown 19. For other discussions of the paintings, (1978:104, note 51), Emmens Kahr (1975:244-245), Moffitt (1961:56-57), (1980:296-297, (1993:190-192). (1971). note 9), Orso 5), and Seidel (1986:chap. see Alpers For the Torre de la Parada paintings,

see Brown 17. For his court positions, for accounts (1978:103); see him throughout, the envy and competition that followed Palomino's and elsewhere). (1947:935 biography

of

104

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there is no doubt inmy mind that they were perceived, meant to be read in relation to the occupants of the room. Recent work by Orso and others makes it obvious that paintings on the walls of the palace were read in relation to the royal characteristically as positive examples either and parallels or inhabitants, contrasts and warnings (Orso 1986; Brown negative and Elliott 1980). Velazquez in this himself was steeped way of thinking about palace decor; by the time of the he had been in charge of the painting of Las Meninas of several important rooms, including decoration the one depicted.20 He and his fellow palace possibly too to identify mythological dwellers were conditioned Calder?n's public and court figures by dramas like which give an idea (Greer 1991:102-105), of how such references were verbalized. That the subjects of thes paintings were generally characters recognizable the specific is implicit in Palomino's ekphrasis; and incidents pictured (as identified from in relation inventories) are readily interpretable with

and reward. As Timolus places the wreath punishment of victory on Apollo's head, Apollo with a gesture ears. Midas's Midas then is a foolish judge changes an obviously who chooses In inferior performer. was a IV wise contrast, Philip judge who chose for his artist and subsequently backed him Velazquez at court. Most recently, in for a series of positions of Darlo todo 1652, one year after the first performance and four years before the creation of Las Meninas, for Philip had supported Velazquez's candidacy over that of others (S?nchez Nieto, among aposentador Cant?n at the time of the 1952:19). Still unrealized was so this bid for painting Velazquez's knighthood; as a further implication ambition has to be considered of Las Meninas' in this imagery. Support of Velazquez

of respect could also be seen as an objective as Calder?n's he emphasized play, Apeles' mobility and that of his art (Ter Horst 1982a:180). The message in Las Meninas, is a generalized one; there however, nothing to indicate that the painter was referring to his ennoblement specifically.21 is the painting of Arachne Above Velazquez and Pallas, Pallas (Minerva) being the goddess of painting to the (Carducho 1633: 52r). According (6, 5-145), Arachne, Metamorphoses having gained fame as a weaver, boasted that her talent surpassed even that of Pallas, who had taught mortals the art.22 Arachne refused to submit to Pallas, and challenged her to a contest. Each wove her tapestries representing own point of view. Pallas depicted in the center of her

is

palace to the inhabitants

of the room. They provide "moral lessons" through negative contrasts to the good and his patron. The relationship between Velazquez Pallas and Arachne painting can be seen as

the punishment of the artist who representing infringes on due respect; and the Apollo and Pan painting, the an inferior artist. of the judge who chooses punishment The first relates to Velazquez who is standing directly it, the second to Nieto below it, and both to the was who the king, simultaneously subject and judge of art. has these Velazquez's Velazquez paintings serve the proper function of paintings in royal galleries, as outlined by Carducho. "If it should be ... to the taste of the owner, to paint the stories of Virgil, Homer, and . . . the virtuous the fables of Ovid, try to demonstrate below moral contained within" (1633:108v-109r). InOvid's story of Apollo and Pan (Metamorphoses Pan challenged to a music contest 11, 85-193), Apollo was and Timolus, the mountain chosen as judge. god, on a Pan his pipes barbaric song that First, played pleased Midas, who was also listening. When Apollo played on his lyre, Timolus ordered Pan to lower his pipes. All approved except Midas who began to argue, the judgment. Apollo, questioning thinking Midas's ears less than human, changed them into those of an ass. In the Rubens painting the moment is one of depicted

the gods of Olympus around Jupiter on his throne. In the corners she represented the punishment of mortals who had dared to defy the gods. Arachne of the gods with mortal portrayed the misdeeds women: the follies of Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, and Bacchus, often in transformed, ungodly guises. "Neither [Pallas], no, nor even Envy could find a flaw in the work work" The goddess was furious, tore (Ovid 1973:133). the offensive tapestry to shreds, and beat Arachne over the head with her shuttle, until the mortal could bear it no longer and hung herself. Pallas, in pity, brought her represents to life and turned her into a spider. The painting the moment of the goddess's violent attack
its later date, it has been difficult for of the cross of Santiago by the presence an extremely It but was, of course, apt addition, in 1656, since Velazquez was

back

scholars

aware of 21. Although to be uninfluenced

on Velazquez's chest. itwas not part of the original painting not inducted into the order until 1659. 22. Velazquez "Metamorfoseos at his death; had a copy en

in such projects may have begun as early as participation late 1620s, and the acquisition of works for the palace was the stated mission of his second trip to Italy from 1649 to 1651. the

20. His

romance," Cant?n S?nchez

of the Metamorphoses (item #563, in the inventory of his goods drawn 1925).

up

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism

II 105

on Arachne.

Hanging on the right side isArachne's tapestry depicting Jupiter's rape of Europa, in a loose takeoff from the Titian painting that was also in the (and from which a tapestry was royal collections

created). the triumph of Tolnay saw this fable as representing art over craft. The problem with this view is its art was superior to the that the goddess's assumption was true mortal's. This of Apollo's music, but, to Ovid, Pallas was not more skillful than according Arachne. The mortal did not lose the contest; she was for disrespect for the gods.23 By depicting punished them in unflattering contexts, carousing in unseemly fashion and not even in their normal forms, Arachne was presenting the truth. The truth she chose to represent, however, infringed on due respect and in this way with Pallas's "portrait" of the contrasted the composition of Las Meninas the gods. Within painting of Pallas and Arachne could be interpreted then in terms of contemporary artistic issues, warning of the dangers of unflattering realism when representing In contrast to the disrespectful important personages. Arachne at the moment of disgrace, Velazquez stands in the foreground in an honored and trusted position before his patron. Much rewarded throughout a lifetime of service since the painting contest of 1627, he had in the palace. very recently risen to the highest office in the painting corresponds to The structure of meaning structure that connects the figures of to Nieto to the two and each other and Velazquez men are above In two them. the addition, paintings linked in a triangular arrangement with the viewer-king the pictorial standing between before them. strike a balance The balance technique did Velazquez avoid the pitfalls of realistic In his Carducho the expresses portraiture? Di?logos common concern of the time when he warns that the copying of a head from nature without improvement can result in infringement on the dignity of the sitter. Carducho's nature with (1633:52r,
23. Brewer

them and

reflected

in the mirror

Figure 5. Diego Velazquez, Mother Jer?nima de la Fuente (detail), 1620. Oil on canvas, 160 x 110 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid. Photo: Courtesy of Museo del Prado.

between

truth and the demands

of

of truth and decorum:

Velazquez's

How

evident when several precourt versions and different of portraits early royal portrayals are compared. In his earliest dated portrait, two close versions of Mother Jer?nima de la Fuente (1620), detailed the lines of age on the face and the Velazquez prominent veins on the hands of the sitter (fig. 5).24 in the depiction This treatment, also evident of older in his and genre paintings, precourt religious subjects was not repeated in later portraits. Already in the Luis
24. The other Madrid. These dated 1623, Museo earliest before Provincial version is in the Fern?ndez

decorum

becomes

"learned painter" corrects and emends reason and educated habits of mind was That to 54r). Velazquez attempting
comments that the ending of the Arachne story is to be good, and Pallas work was allowed 2:3 and 11). Brown notes the same

Araoz Su?rez

and

the portrait of Crist?bal de Bellas Artes), also of does The early Man not predate

in that Arachne's surprising had to resort to violence (1941, note 51). (1978:104,

portraits. probably

(Seville, 1620, are Velazquez's with Ruff Collar, also from this group (Brown

Collection, de Ribera

1986:29-34).

106

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Figure 6. Diego Velazquez, Luis de G?ngora, 1622. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm. Marie Antoinette of Fine Arts, Boston. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Evans Fund, Museum

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism

II 107

de G?ngora of 1622 (fig. 6) there is less emphasis lines and more on the reflection of light from the planes of the face in a less focused treatment

on

(contrasting with the sharp edges of the collar). Interesting also is the radiograph of the portrait, which reveals that at first Velazquez crowned the poet with a laurel wreath 1968:39, pi. 40). (L?pez-Rey he painted over the wreath, Subsequently, preferring to convey the sitter's distinction through characterization rather than artifice. his

the thinner paints and soft focus for the sharper focus in the eyes or hair for borrones decorated garments and the (fig. 9)?and more elaborate hairdos of women. This manner of Velazquez face?with used occasional as the image from a distance, painting requires viewing sense makes the spectator backs away from only when the canvas. Gridley McKim-Smith and coauthors have that the viewing distance thus established emphasized was a clich? in contemporary literature (1988:15-17). Of Velazquez's Palomino says, painting specifically, . . . from a "from close up it cannot be understood distance Another between it is a miracle" (1947:905). in Palomino makes passage the connection

Experimentation with another type of artifice, is found in his portrayals of the king. The idealization, of the full-length standing portrait of Philip radiograph of about 1626-28 (Prado) shows a different painting is thought to be the first image of the beneath, which in 1623 (L?pez-Rey created king by Velazquez Brown has argued convincingly 1968:43-44, pi. 49). that the face of this earlier, hidden image was an idealized one that Velazquez covered subsequently with realistic visage. The earlier version, is still visible in three other paintings, two fortunately, the third a copy (Brown possibly by Velazquez, Illustrated here to show the change are 1986:44-47). two bust-length portraits. In one, thought by Brown to be a study on which the hidden full-length portrait was a more

this technique of distancing the image from the viewer and the problem of portraying faults in realistic portraiture. After advising the artist to good use

of

light and portrayal of the subject when he looks his in the case of sovereigns, best, he further suggests in the face some things may be moderated which
favor the subject, like wrinkling, thinness, or bad

do not
color . . .

based, the jaw is shortened and the full lower lip is minimized is very similar to (fig. 7). The other, which now in the repainted visible the image full-length portrait, shows a lengthier jaw and fuller lip (fig. 8). Velazquez was trying to create an appropriate image of the king, but in the end he rejected the modified features that compromised likeness. Studying the brushwork of artists like El Greco and to explore his new Titian, he continued, however, to the painted surface and accompanying approach ideas about the nature of resemblance. Having started with a style emphasizing surface detail, by the close-up Clearly a variety of strokes to 1630s Velazquez had developed in distance, focus, give the impression of differences Most revolutionary among these light, and movement. were the thin washes that created hazy, blurred images without sharp outlines and the loose, separated or borrones that produced a (spots, blotches) surface inwhich the "details" are dabs of paint rather than the incidentals of appearance (see especially et al. 1988:chap. McKim-Smith 1).25 In portraits manchas
above of the words quoted mancha and borr?n for the fault on Alexander's face, a purposeful the terms for the brushstrokes with which twist, since these were Velazquez obscured such faults. 25. Notice Calder?n's use in the scene

this on the whole cannot prejudice the likeness, because when a subject is viewed at some distance, where only the general pattern (mancha) of light and shadow can be seen and the other little details are lost, it is not due to [these] that the subject is recognizable. From this it is inferredwith certainty that contour and general pattern of light and shadow are the fundamental principle of the likeness and that the rest are accidents and corroborations which lend little to the substance of the intent. Palomino 1947530-53126 Earlier Pacheco had made a similar distinction between the accidents of appearance and the essence, which can be depicted with "simple lines" (1956, In portraiture, he says, only a bad artist 2:212-213). needs to exaggerate notable defects to make a likeness InDarlo todo Apelles (1956, 2:152). recognizable the same idea, that it is easier to create a expresses likeness when the sitter has a defect (Calder?n 1959:1250). In Las Meninas which Velazquez the variety of techniques through achieved is evident resemblance

26. This passage truth and decorum invokes the example between what

follows

Palomino's where

restatement he, solution

of the conflict

of

in portraiture,

to do much, trying to imitate . . . did in the portrait of King Antigonos him Apelles placing in half profile, with which almost discretion he was freed from into one of the two dangers of effrontery (atrevido) or of slipping (1947:530). flattery (lisonjero)"

of Apelles. His and flattery echoes effrontery "in this the discretion of the artist has

like many before him, of a path midway even in the wording: Calder?n,

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Figure 7. Diego Velazquez,

Meadows Museum, Southern

Philip IV, ca. 1623. Oil on canvas, 62 x 48 cm. Algur H. Meadows

Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Photo: Courtesy of Meadows

Collection,
Museum.

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism

II 109

the seemingly reality of unflattering psychological contemporary portraits of the king? Some Velazquez's have been of the artistic issues addressed by Calder?n analyzed by the literary historian Robert Ter Horst (1982a; 1982b), but no one has yet related them to Velazquez's portrayals. The following by J. H. Elliott represents current thought on the painter's bust-length portrait of Philip of about the same date as Las Meninas (fig. 9): At first glance it would seem that Velazquez had stripped away all the majesty of kingship to reveal the pathetic figure behind the mask?a weak, defeated and disillusioned man. But this is to ignore the Spanish tradition of royal portraiture to which Velazquez faithfully adhered. . . .The very austerity and simplicity of the king's ?mage in Spanish painting was itself an indication of his may well be that Velazquez, as a overwhelming majesty. It not but reveal the human could supremely great artist, frailties of the king he served. Elliott 1989:267-268 Ido not question the observations about the simplicity Brown of presentation also (see 1988), nor that came to inner life. I close exposing Philip's Velazquez do see as off course, however, Elliott's characterization as something of the king's state of mind as depicted "could not but reveal": Calder?n would that Velazquez it differently. have explained InDarlo todo the king's outward physical fault is not it reflects (or, more accurately just a matter of accident; an inner character flaw, which in this case, symbolizes) he must, and does, conquer by the end of the play (Ter flaw is his passion Alexander's Horst 1982a:182-183). he relinquishes whom for the beautiful Campaspe, is to the necessity for a finally Apelles. The theme here can control his king to control his inner self before he (Ter Horst 1982a:part 3), and the artist's kingdom in portraying the king is that of a counselor. function of painting was For Calder?n the greatest achievement the representation of the soul, in particular, the suffering soul (Ter Horst 1982b). Through the revealing portrait the artist "speaks" to and "advises" the subject, pointing out essential problems, but not in an insulting his pursuit of pleasure, and, like of his young the sexual promiscuity Alexander, adulthood suring the 1620s and 1630s. In keeping with current thought he viewed the political disasters of his later reign and the losses to death of his first wife, two in the 1640s as God's siblings, and heir Baltasar Carlos punishment 1991:89-90; for these sins (Elliott 1977:47; Seco Serrano 1958, 4:lx-lxiii, Greer 13, 19-20, or blunt manner. Philip's sins were

Figure 8. Diego Velazquez, Philip IV in Armor, ca. 1626. Oil on canvas, 57 x 44 cm. Museo del Prado. Photo: Courtesy of Museo del Prado.

throughout.

particularly himself remarked

His economy in the distant

is demonstrated image of Nieto, as Palomino and the mirror reflection (1947:921),

of means

of the king and queen (fig. 10). These visages, although are still of thin washes, vague and composed the patterns of light and completely recognizable; face shapes. Pacheco, shadow reveal distinctive and Calder?n, therefore, must have been Palomino, solutions. revolutionary Velazquez's answer in not Calder?n does explain Apelles' Although the same vein, the casting of a shadow over the fault would have had the effect of putting it in an area of verbalizing reduced focus.

Addressing a king prudently

to Darlo todo also opens The linking of Las Meninas to a complex of notions about this the discussion aspect of his naturalism. But how are we to understand

110 RES28 AUTUMN 1995

Figure 9. Diego Velazquez, Philip IV,before 1655. Oil on canvas, 62 x 48 cm. Museo Courtesy of Museo del Prado.

del Prado, Madrid.

Photo:

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism

II 111

late portrayal of Philip 64, 81, 84, 85). Velazquez's as the artist's prudent then must be considered revelation of the soul. It is a portrait of a man whose contrition, suffering, and struggle with his inner self It is consistent have marked his exterior appearance. in Philip's with the mental state apparent with his spiritual advisor, Sor Mar?a de correpondence Serrano 1958) and it represents the kingly (Seco Agreda or at least the struggle for virtue of self-conquest,
self-control.

realistic and psychologically Velazquez's physically a an were not matter artistic of individual portrayals of agenda. They were the visual manifestations currents of thought shared by the king contemporary and explicated by Calder?n. Philip philosophically must have approved of the artist's early rejection of an idealized image, and, as Brown points out, later he ordered paintings of himself and others in the palace to if necessary, with more like be inspected and repainted, visages. As time passed, he did not expect the artist to ameliorate the effects of age but rather eschewed As for the verbal (Brown 1988:147-148). representation in his revelation of faults, there is some evidence to his ministers that Philip wanted correspondence speak directly to him, even when they were critical; at least he echoed this commonly voiced ?deal of Spanish political thought.27 is The trope of the king who must rule his passions found in other plays by Calder?n and his Spanish It is inherent in (Ter Horst 1982a:173ff.). predecessors Pliny's original story inwhich Alexander's gift of his to the artist is interpreted as a demonstration of mistress to a victory in battle self-conquest comparable (1968:125). Nevertheless, character flaw in Darlo would not have been the fact that the king's is uncontrolled passion as a matter of interpreted todo its palace audience.

Figure 10. Close-up of mirror reflections of Philip IVand Mariana in LasMeninas. Photo: Courtesy of Museo del Prado.

and

points

at a particular inserts towards clues certain

figure that would political

in the court.

Rather

...

he

constructs actions that have a general fidelity to human

nature audience and tactfully readings. steer a court

Greer

1991:102

Philip allegory by generalized himself had to have taken the lesson personally when was presented in a play that, in his particular weakness to his court. other ways, referred more specifically the nature of such Margaret Rich Greer characterizes to the audience: references and their comprehensibility [Calder?n's late plays] do not offer simplistic allegory in which a mythic figure personifies a single vice or virtue
the letters of 1626 between Philip and his minister, as quoted in Saxl (1957:312-313; also Greer of Olivares, and also his correspondence with Sor Mar?a de Agreda 1991:79), 1958). The offering of such criticism was seen as (Seco Serrano See and even a matter of loyalty, but itwas also a very delicate (Greer 1991:79-82). 27. two

Presumably Calder?n was addressing Philip with the at least, proper subtlety required in all his counselors; avows contest in the play itself. The that iswhat he scene is like a painting-within-a-painting in that Apelles offers to Alexander (with trepidation) a painted message to is presenting about the same problem that Calder?n In the end, Philip in a verbal portrait of kingship. Darlo todo can be seen as flattering and nevertheless, as a to Philip in its depiction of Alexander encouraging truth judge of art, wanted king who was a perceptive his human faults (that from his counselors, conquered is, his passion), and became a great ruler. The latter, of course, was Philip's desired goal, although by this date its attainment was seemingly beyond hope. Performed

Count-Duke

desirable affair

112 RES 28 AUTUMN

1995

celebrating Queen Mariana Darlo 1979:203), todo, like Velazquez's (Reichenberger more an acknowledgment constituted portrait, probably after his of Philip's contrition and new self-control perhaps in 1649 than an admonition. Presumably by remarriage this date, he was no longer indulging in extramarital of the play, she liaisons. As for Mariana's perception in the final scene wherein could have taken comfort and takes a royal bride, Alexander gives up Campaspe the beautiful Queen action Estatira?his fianc?, captive princess, sea at died of during Rojana Cyprus, having of the play. Estatira and Rojana could have Mariana and Isabel of as Queen of Spain. the

twice on occasions

suggestion of a purposeful juxtaposition of the with the tapestry helps explain portrait Mariana's presence beside the king as well as that of the focal point of the foreground group.29 Margarita, was Margarita only living child in Philip and Mariana's 1656 and proof of their union. The focus on their The double royal offspring within a room that was still with the dead heir to the throne (Palomino resonances had to have had additional for 1947:921) members of the court at a time when Don Juan, the by the king in 1642, was illegitimate son recognized legitimate associated 1989:77ff., on the rising to political power (see Orso in these years). Don Juan dilemma of royal succession was the source of much pain to Mariana?as he had as an adult in the been to Isabel of Bourbon?and to the rights of Philip's 1650s he was a challenger younger, addition (in female, and less able legitimate children to Margarita, his daughter Maria Teresa from his first marriage). Later, he remained a in

a veiled we must to sexual reference incontinence, Philip's to with much but the same, allusions acknowledge greater subtlety, in the imagery of Las Meninas, in the mythological painting above specifically that head. Greer has argued convincingly Velazquez's in Las fortunas de Andr?meda y Perseo (1653) Calder?n was referring to Philip and his illegitimate son Juan Jos? de Austria (1629-1679) through the son by Dan?e his illicit and of Perseus, persons Jupiter In the Rubens composition Arachne's (1991:96-101). in which incident another Jupiter strays tapestry depicts from his proper mate, Juno, and seduces a mortal invisible woman, Europa. In contrast Velazquez's as mirror the revealed canvas, yet constituting by Don depicts Philip, the painting-within-a-painting, as a with his queen.28 husband faithful Spanish Jupiter, was asked whether the such a question Previously, Moffitt double portrait ever existed (for example, The question posed here iswhy 1980:286-287). is representing the painting of such a Velazquez van in the Arnolfini Portrait, that portrait. Like Eyck another that influenced other remarkable composition in the use of the mirror (fig. 11), the artist Velazquez but the union of Philip and Mariana, appears to witness in a reversed composition, with himself inside and the couple And, visually outside like Apelles the painting (Seidel 1993:194-198). in Darlo todo, he is creating a truthful, yet respectful, portrait of the king.

respectively, represented, Bourbon, her defunct predecessor we accept Darlo todo as containing If

survived retarded threat to the government of the mentally Charles II, who, born in 1661, came to the throne 1665 under the regency of Mariana. Calder?n

to comment continued through mythological allegory on Don Juan's political presence vis-?-vis Philip, (Greer 1991 :chaps. 4 and 5, and Charles, and Mariana the first viewers of Las Meninas might these implications, or read them into have recognized its imagery? Although the obscurity of the paintings the intention of meaning? makes the meaning?even difficult to detect, some inhabitants of the palace canvases would have known which hanging on the in Las Meninas wall were depicted (and they would in them have had to know the originals to see meaning as the details are not legible). For the less acute observer, they might have represented simply the artist the poor of and the disrespectful punishments art. Yet the of others have understood judge might as a reference to tapestry in the Arachne painting have seen of course, would Philip's sins. Calder?n, In addition to both personal and artistic implications. theoretical ideas of his and Velazquez's the congruence life and the reference to an incident from the painter's in Darlo todo, Calder?n used a painting-within-a-play in El pintor de su deshonra inwhich 1640s), dishonor; (The painter of his the artist-protagonist elsewhere). Who among

28. Given political,

is possible here, with Europa the territory over which Spain for many years had scene to the neglect of the domestic to extend domain attempted success in Philip's time). Europa (and, of course, with diminishing in an allegorical portrait of Philip Europe riding the bull represents representing engraved at the time of his death (Orso 1989:115, pi. 9).

the seventeenth-century a further level of meaning

link between

the moral

and

the

29. IV

See also Volk

the painting emphasizing her household.

(1978) and Vahlne (1982) for interpretations the presence and members of the Queen

of of

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism

II 113

Figure 11. Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini Portrait, 1434. Oil on panel, 81.8 x 59.7 cm. The National Gallery, London. Photo: Courtesy of the Trustees, The National Gallery, London.

114 RES 28 AUTUMN

1995

life paralleling the plot pictured events from Hercules' of the play and foretelling his own death (Calder?n 1991:173-175). I have argued above for the meaningful presence of a series of paintings-within-the-painting in the the two mythological of Las Meninas: composition tapestry in one of these, the pictures, the Arachne mirror, and the invisible canvas that it reveals. I now suggest the artist's use of another artifice as a verbal emblem of his composition?an key to the meaning lies in the foreground even the form of the dog, who closer to the viewer than Margarita (and perhaps adopted also from van Eyck's painting). As in the theater where the proscenium the dog marks his presence, meant to evoke this context, such animal in

to his wife and his friendship for Philip's faithfulness and support of his pintor de c?mara. not only of the Such verbal plays were characteristic and dramas of writers like contemporary poetry and Calder?n but also of Velazquez's G?ngora a conversation I have proposed (Umberger 1993:25). similar visual witticism Borrachos, wherein in the figure of Bacchus in Los in a the naturalistic model pose should have called to the

Michelangelesque minds of the palace artists who were its first audience the words on "Michelangelo" and "Anti-Michelangelo,"

emblems were displayed on and curtains (Greer 1991:86, 158-159), the entrance to Velazquez's "stage." If like the dog in the Arnolfini Portrait, was

the latter being the epithet used by Carducho for the hated Michelangelo da Caravaggio (Umberger 1993:27, In the case of Las Meninas we must decide 31-35). whether we can accept the use of an emblem in our Ibelieve of Velazquez's naturalism. that we conception can. Although Velazquez effaced the obvious artifices in his early portraits, more natural appearing devices, even emblems, are not totally lacking in other an allegorical figure in the form in his first important historical the Expulsion of the Moriscos (1627, composition, in and a 1734; Palomino 1947:898-899), destroyed a in lion the of late reclining portrait of background paintings. He of a sculpture included Philip (Brown, 1986:fig. 269).32

in the word fidelity?more explicitly the concept of faithful painting?it would of the word and the several meanings encapsulate of the messages imagery in a play.30 Two suggested had called naturalistic decades earlier Carducho 'fiel imitadora . . . de lo natural"(the faithful painting to imitator of nature) (1633:56r), without meaning turns flatter its practitioners. the value of this Velazquez own version around and his of "faithful concept depicts painting" as resolving the dilemma of the naturalistic artist: like the mirror, it is faithful to the truth, and, unlike Arachne's tapestry, it is faithful to the depicted patron. Velazquez's portrayals, instruments of self-knowledge,31 although were not blunt or have dignity, his insulting: his characterizations brushstrokes minimize physical faults, and he includes to Habsburg the trappings appropriate rulership (see Brown 1988). Fidelity, of course, would also define realistic

Provisional Svetlana

conclusions Alpers sees

Las Meninas as, on some level, its contemporary expressing composition through structures of thought.33 She characterizes the painting as conflating two modes of viewing, which she calls southern (Italian or Albertian) and northern or descriptive). Ibelieve that the general (Netherlandish notion is correct but would be more accurate reframed in the terms of contemporary, Italian-derived Spanish theoretical discourse.34 What Alpers calls southern and northern modes are both found in Spanish thought, the contrasting subsumed, concepts respectively, within of dibujo (drawing) and colorido (coloring), disegno and colore associated learning,
32. The

30. (Panofsky Mander's joined

In van

the dog represents marital fidelity Eyck's painting Pacheco 1993:124). 1971; Seidel repeated Karel van

states that the couple is of the portrait, which description this with the 1:64). He does not connect by faith (1956, would have. then in the royal collections, but Velazquez painting to see the symbolic did not, however, need a description Velazquez function as like mirrors/realtiy was of paintings rife a of in the seventeenth for See, instance, century. poem by Quevedo or Valdivielso's 1629 (Varia velazque?a about 1960, 2:19-22); poem about his portrait by Juan van der Hamen y Le?n (in Carducho 31. The is The idea of mirrors as "instruments of self-knowledge" 1633:183r). in Calder?n; and help characters found regain they cure bestiality human form (Greer 1991:92). See also Emmens's interesting in Las Meninas in relation to the concept of of the mirror discussion the "mirror of princes" (1961:60ff.); and Kahr (1975:243). of the dog. characterization

McKim-Smith

in Italian (see Carducho 1633:passim; et al. 1988:15-33). Dibujo was with a variety of linked ideas: perspective, drawing, constructed compositions,
was

science,

a workshop but presumably latter is actually product, on Velazquez's conception. 33. In this she follows Foucault (1973:3-16, 307-308, 312), in the structures it reflects. she believes she differs although based 34. artist's place Idisagree, however, in this scheme with idea that the corollary Alpers's is both inside and outside the painting.

Umberger: Velazquez

and naturalism

II 115

use of literary figures and study of visual precedents, the the emblems, idea, ideal, the intellectual, and, in Carducho's treatise, the pintor interior, as represented by Michelangelo. techniques decorous surface, It thus comprised the learned the artist created appropriate and by which images in portraiture. Colorido encompassed

allusions;

is Velazquez's specific ambition for are the problems of Addressed instead knighthood. naturalistic and the role of the learned representation artist. Having a strong base in contemporary literature, interpretation has the advantage of own great painterly to Velazquez's closely relating innovations, as demonstrated fully in Las Meninas itself. It also does more justice to Velazquez's intellect, and, at the same time, sees him as a man of his era, this alternate

nor

imitation, truth, color, decoration, brushstroke, the and Carducho's nature, natural, fidelity, pintor It therefore exterior, as represented by Caravaggio. the naturalistic aspects that might comprised infringe on decorum. In addition to alluding to the solution to in the mirror image the specific problems of portraiture in Las Meninas, and the Arachne painting Velazquez in his resolved the conflicts between these two modes in other of painting: general composition his is both naturalistic painting (fiel) and words, learned painting (docta). This resolution through conflation also translates into the terms of seventeenth-century categories of painting. A monumental Las Meninas composition, depicts a but highly calculated arrangement of real and raises (naturalistic) portraiture and people, thereby to of the level (learned) history genre painting portraiture and genre painting, painting.35 Naturalistic inwhich the categories the young Velazquez had were and the other excelled, by Carducho denigrated Italianate artists who arrived in 1623. dominated the court when he casual and manner

whose

to realistic portrayal and a related commitment to his of ideas was comprehensible body philosophical the brilliant and shared contemporaries by equally playwright Pedro Calder?n de la Barca, as well as, to a certain extent, the king himself.

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