The Rokeby Venus Poster Print by Diego Velazquez (24 x 18)

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The 14 masterpieces of the Prado museum in mega high resolution on Google Earth". Museo de Prado. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021 . Retrieved 14 February 2021. Now he (the painter) can be seen, caught in a moment of stillness, at the neutral centre of his oscillation. His dark torso and bright face are half-way between the visible and the invisible: emerging from the canvas beyond our view, he moves into our gaze; but when, in a moment, he makes a step to the right, removing himself from our gaze, he will be standing exactly in front of the canvas he is painting; he will enter that region where his painting, neglected for an instant, will, for him, become visible once more, free of shadow and free of reticence. As though the painter could not at the same time be seen on the picture where he is represented and also see that upon which he is representing something." [70] Asturias, Miguel Angel, and P. M. Bardi (1969). L'opera completa di Velázquez. Milano: Rizzoli. OCLC 991877516.

Our first feeling is of being there. We are standing just to the right of the King and Queen, whose reflections we can see in the distant mirror, looking down an austere room in the Alcázar (hung with del Mazo's copies of Rubens) and watching a familiar situation. The Infanta Doña Margarita doesn't want to pose...She is now five years old, and she has had enough. [It is] an enormous picture, so big that it stands on the floor, in which she is going to appear with her parents; and somehow the Infanta must be persuaded. Her ladies-in-waiting, known by the Portuguese name of meninas... are doing their best to cajole her, and have brought her dwarfs, Maribarbola and Nicolasito, to amuse her. But in fact they alarm her almost as much as they alarm us. [41] The queen's chamberlain José Nieto is given prominence in the portrait thanks to his placement in the doorway. Nieto was also the head of tapestry works at the court and may have been a relative of Velázquez. It looks as though he is pushing aside a curtain in the doorway, perhaps to let in more natural light while the painter works. The young princess would have been about 5 years old when Las Meninaswas painted. Though Philip had 12 children between his two wives, Margaret Theresa was only one of two to survive into adulthood. She later became the Holy Roman Empress when she married Leopold I. Here she is being attended by two ladies in waiting and dressed in the full splendor that one would expect from a young Habsburg. Interestingly, her gaze doesn't fall on either of her ladies-in-waiting, but directly outward at whoever is standing behind Velázquez's easel.Commissioned by Philip, the painting was hung in his private office at his summer palace. Until 1819 it remained in the royal palace, after which time it went into the collection of the Prado Museum. Much of what we know about the painting is owed to Spanish writer Antonio Palomino, who dedicated an entire section of his book on Spanish artists to Las Meninas. He not only gave the year that the painting was created, but also identified most of the people within the canvas. It's also thanks to Palomino that we know that it shows a room located within the Royal Alcázar. This fortress turned palace was the seat of the Habsburg rulers. In 1692, the Neapolitan painter Luca Giordano became one of the few allowed to view paintings held in PhilipIV's private apartments, and was greatly impressed by Las Meninas. Giordano described the work as the "theology of painting", [44] and was inspired to paint A Homage to Velázquez ( National Gallery, London). [79] By the early 18th century his oeuvre was gaining international recognition, and later in the century British collectors ventured to Spain in search of acquisitions. Since the popularity of Italian art was then at its height among British connoisseurs, they concentrated on paintings that showed obvious Italian influence, largely ignoring others such as Las Meninas. [80] Portraiture [ edit ] Lady from court, c. 1635 Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid, 1635, a court fool of Philip IV Carr, Dawson W. (2006). "Painting and Reality: The Art and Life of Velázquez". In Carr, Dawson W.; Bray, Xavier (eds.). Velázquez. London: National Gallery. ISBN 978-1-85709-303-2.

Velázquez, Diego" (1995). Enciclopedia Hispánica. Barcelona: Encyclopædia Britannica Publishers. ISBN 1-56409-007-8. Gower, Ronald Sutherland (1900). Sir Thomas Lawrence. London, Paris & New York: Goupil & co. p. 83. And a couple of Lyme-hounds of singular qualities which the King and Queen in very kind manner accepted." [26] Utley, Gertje; Gual, Malén (2008). Olvidando a Velázquez: Las Meninas. Barcelona: Museu Picasso. ISBN 978-84-9850-089-9. Los textiles habituales usados en nuestras camas han sido cambiados por sabanas y toallas desechables para que nuestros clientes gocen de plena tranquilidad.

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Of the nine figures depicted, five are looking directly out at the royal couple or the viewer. Their glances, along with the king and queen's reflection, affirm the royal couple's presence outside the painted space. [27] Alternatively, art historians H. W. Janson and Joel Snyder suggest that the image of the king and queen is a reflection from Velázquez's canvas, the front of which is obscured from the viewer. [34] [35] Other writers say the canvas Velázquez is shown working on is unusually large for one of his portraits, and note that is about the same size as Las Meninas. The painting contains the only known double portrait of the royal couple painted by the artist. [36]

Wolf, Norbert (1998) Diego Velázquez, 1599–1660: the face of Spain Taschen, Köln. ISBN 3-8228-6511-7. According to López-Rey, the painting has three focal points: the Infanta Margaret Theresa, the self-portrait and the half-length reflected images of King PhilipIV and Queen Mariana. In 1960, Clark observed that the success of the composition is a result first and foremost of the accurate handling of light and shade:Brown, Jonathan (1986). Velázquez: Painter and Courtier. Yale University Press, New Haven. ISBN 0-300-03466-0. Yale uncovers Velazquez in basement storage". CBC News. July 3, 2010. Archived from the original on July 6, 2010 . Retrieved December 22, 2010.

In 1643 Velázquez was promoted again, to Gentleman of the Bedchamber. He was also made superintendent of the palace works. In 1647 he was put in charge of a project to modernise the old Alcázar palace. Gresle, Yvette (6 July 2007). "Foucault's 'Las Meninas' and Art-Historical Methods". Journal of Literary Studies. Taylor & Francis. 22 (3–4): 211–228. doi: 10.1080/02564710608530401. S2CID 145488454. Ingram, Kevin (1999). "Diego Velázquez's Secret History", Boletín del Museo del Prado, XVII (35): 69–85. In 17th-century Spain, painters rarely enjoyed high social status. Painting was regarded as a craft, not an art such as poetry or music. [7] Nonetheless, Velázquez worked his way up through the ranks of the court of PhilipIV, and in February 1651 was appointed palace chamberlain ( aposentador mayor del palacio). The post brought him status and material reward, but its duties made heavy demands on his time. During the remaining eight years of his life, he painted only a few works, mostly portraits of the royal family. [8] When he painted Las Meninas, he had been with the royal household for 33 years.a b "Velázquez, Diego" [ dead link] (US) and "Velázquez, Diego". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. [ permanent dead link] The painting has been cut down on both the left and right sides. [d] It was damaged in the 1734 fire that destroyed the Alcázar, and was restored by court painter Juan García de Miranda (1677–1749). The left cheek of the Infanta was almost completely repainted to compensate for a substantial loss of pigment. [e] After its rescue from the fire, the painting was inventoried as part of the royal collection in 1747–48, and the Infanta was misidentified as Maria Theresa, Margaret Theresa's older half-sister, an error that was repeated when the painting was inventoried at the new Madrid Royal Palace in 1772. [17] A 1794 inventory reverted to a version of the earlier title, The Family of PhilipIV, which was repeated in the records of 1814. The painting entered the collection of the Museo del Prado on its foundation in 1819. [e] In 1843, the Prado catalogue listed the work for the first time as Las Meninas. [17] In 2009, the Portrait of a Man in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which had long been associated with the followers of Velázquez' style of painting, was cleaned and restored. It was found to be by Velázquez himself, and the features of the man match those of a figure in the painting "the Surrender of Breda". The newly cleaned canvas may therefore be a study for that painting. Although the attribution to Velázquez is regarded as certain, the identity of the sitter is still open to question. Some art historians consider this new study to be a self-portrait by Velázquez. [88] Davies, David and Enriqueta Harris (1996) Velázquez in Seville National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. ISBN 0-300-06949-9.