Velázquez’s Las Meninas (2)

Paul La Plante

The most engaging and interesting work of Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez is
Las Meninas, Spanish for The Maids of Honor. This painting contains a richly diverse
cast of characters: at the center, the Infanta, or Princess Margaret Theresa, flanked on
either side by a maid-in-waiting; Velázquez himself to the left of the Infanta; on the
right, in the middle distance of the painting, a chaperone and a guard; in the foreground
on the right, two dwarves and a large dog; in the background, in the doorway in the rear
of the room, another man, who appears to be leaving the room; finally, in a mirror on
the rear wall, the reflections of Philip IV and his queen Mariana of Austria.

In his article “On the Meaning of Las Meninas,” Jonathan Brown points out that
“the characters in Las Meninas have long been known,” (Brown 88) save for the guard
(and the canine companion of the dwarves). The space, too, has been identified as an
actual, physical room in the royal palace in Madrid. The result of this knowledge is that
the painting serves in the literal sense of Velázquez creating some masterpiece for the
court. The subject matter of Velázquez’s canvas, though, is a highly controversial topic
that does not have a definite resolution. Building on this uncertainty, the interpretation
of the work as a whole presents an even greater challenge.

One of the possible explanations for the interpretation of the work as a whole is given
by Brown, who explains the scene as the characters in the picture having “just noticed
Philip and Mariana” (91) as they come into the chamber. As a logical result of this,
Brown claims, “The mirror on the rear wall reflects the persons of the king and queen.
They are physically present in the room, a fact that Velázquez has underlined by making
them the catalysis of the action” (91). However, in one stops to think about this
situation, one can see that this interpretation cannot be directly verified by the painting
Elementary geometric optics would dictate that for the physical king and queen to be
reflected in the mirror in the depicted manner, they must be standing in front of the
mirror at a distance on only a few feet, somewhere close to the mid-ground of the
painting. Were the mirror’s reflection depicted in a strictly realistic manner, as in The
Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyck, we should see the backs of the congregated people
in front of the king and queen. The mirror is therefore confusing, and causes the viewer
to reconsider where the images of the king and queen actually come from and what the
reflection means.

An alternative explanation to the “plot” put forth by Brown is advanced by Michael

Foucault in the book The Order of Things. In this book, Foucault claims that the king
and queen appear in the mirror because their image “is the reverse of the great canvas
represented on the left” (Foucault 10). Having already established that the mirror “hangs
right in the middle of the far wall” (7), Foucault uses optics to claim that the position of
the viewer relative to the room means that the mirror therefore reflects the canvas.
Although this interpretation is subject to the same problems as the other interpretation,
it is still a valid way to read the painting.
 Clearly, the difference between Brown’s interpretation (the entrance of the king
and queen) and Foucault’s one (the king and queen are on the canvas of the portrait)
shows that there can be a distinct, legitimate difference in interpretation of the work.
This difference can fundamentally change the central focus of the work. The question of
the central focus becomes an interesting one because, as Leo Steinberg points out in his
article “Velázquez’s Las Meninas,” there are different interpretations for where the
center of the room lies. He explains that the horizontal center of the painting lies along
the “left eye, precisely” of the Infanta; the “given orthogonals…converge upon the man
on the stair inside the doorway”; and using the light fixtures as a guide, “the room’s
central axis falls to the left of the open door” (Steinberg 51). The overall result of this is
that the perceived center of the painting is constantly changing in the mind of the
viewer, making a definitive judgment rather difficult, if not impossible.

Regardless of how one interprets the painting, the concept of the mirror serves
as one of the key aspects. In her article “Picturing Power: Representation and Las
Meninas,” Amy Schmitter remarks on the idea that the vanishing point for the piece can
be constructed to lie in the mirror, with the viewing position located directly opposite it
(Schmitter 262). Schmitter advances this claim by also claiming that the king and queen
in the mirror are the “ideal image” of the Philip IV and Mariana (261). This
interpretation increases the importance of the mirror further still, and forces the viewer
to seriously think about the importance of the monarchs.

Clearly, there are many different ways in which to interpret this particular
painting, and each one seems as equally valid as the next. For example, the basic
question of, “Who is standing in front of the painting?” can be dealt with in three main
ways: the physical king and queen, as entrants to the room or models for their portrait
(if a portrait is indeed what Velázquez is painting in the work); Velázquez himself as
the painter of the physical canvas; and the viewer of the painting, which historically
would have been the king and queen. If we focus on this last idea, we can see that if the
viewing location is directly in front of the mirror, an idea Schmitter suggests in her
article, then the viewer of the painting becomes the king and queen, both literally and
historically. Another excellent question is, “What is the painting really about?” There
are many answers to this question: one answer is that it is about the power and ubiquity
of the monarchs. Certainly, they are present in the mirror. One can also take Schmitter’s
view of the mirror as key and claim that it is about the king and queen, in an ideal sense.
In a more general sense, the king and queen act as viewers, as noted above. The king
and queen may also serve as model for the portrait, and be present on Velázquez’s
canvas. Finally, Philip IV and Mariana are represented physically by the Infanta, as
their lifeblood. Since the Infanta is the geometric center of the painting, she clearly
serves as one of the focal points of the work.

In another interpretation, the painting can be about the skill of Velázquez. The
paintbrush is fused with his hand by a single brushstroke, fusing the master with his
craft. Velázquez also likens himself to Apelles, as the painter of the court. He has the
keys to the palace as the king’s Aposentador, noting his elevated position. His clothing
is that of a courtier, also attesting to his stature. Most enigmatically, though, he implies
that his art is a perfect mirror, but not necessarily of reality as we physically see it. This
last interpretation hinges on the perception of the mirror as a reflection of ideals;
additionally, though not physically possible, what is in the mirror nevertheless has some
deep significance in the physical world. In truth, the fact that the reflection is not
physically possible speaks to the mirror’s importance.

All of these different interpretations contribute to the concept of “Baroque illusionism”

discussed by Brown. Essentially, this style is “to create a world of illusion that aimed to
confuse the boundaries between art and reality” (Brown 97). We see this idea also in the
painting The Spinners. In this, Velázquez uses the tapestry in multiple senses: first, as a
tribute to Peter Paul Rubens and Titian, two famous contemporaries who were knighted
and were members of the nobility. Second, the tapestry evokes a story of how a mortal
was better than the gods, implying that Velázquez (the allegorical mortal) is better than
past greats, if not the gods themselves. These two ways of interpretation contribute to
the suggestion that painting is a liberal art. Bearing all this in mind, one can plainly see
that Velázquez truly was one of the great painters, and Las Meninas is one of the finest
paintings in Western art.

Works Cited
Brown, Jonathan. “Images and Ideas in Seventeenth-Century Painting.”
Princeton Essays on the Arts: 87-110.
Foucault, Michael. The Order of Things. New York: Vintage Books, 1970.
Schmitter, Amy M. “Picturing Power: Representation and Las Meninas.” The
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54.3 (1996): 255-268.
Steinberg, Leo. “Velazquez’s Las Meninas.” October 19 (1981): 45-54.