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Las Meninas Essay

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Las Meninas (after cleaning), 10 ft. 7 in. × 9 ft. ½ in. (3.23 × 2.76 m), in Museo del Prado, Madrid- Spain is an oil on canvas which is done by the main Baroque artist in the seventeenth century, counter-reformation, Diego Velázquez(1599–1660). This work is not just greeting for the artist’s genius as a painter, but at the same time is about the very specialty of painting. This Velázquez’s unqualified masterpiece is monumental which is painted on 1656. The complex works and composition raise questions about reality and illusion, however, this drawing has been one of the most widely analyzed works in western painting.
To begin with, the setting is a vast room in the palace of King Philip Quaternary and Queen Mariana, parents of the five-years-old infant Margharita, who is the focus of the picture. She is presented by her housemaid (Meninas) and accompanied by a dog, a midget, and a dwarf. The precise costumes of the Spanish court are painted in such a way, to the point that the brushstrokes highlight the texture and the composition. Below the legendary pictures on the back wall, depicting …show more content…

They appear to be placed outside the picture space, although some people have thought that there image is a reflection from the painting the artist is shown working on. The questions rise, does their picture imply that they are really standing in front of their daughter, or that they are the subjects of Velázquez's canvas?
The mirror in Las Meninas may be purposefully vague, which would not be conflicting with Baroque taste. The status of painting is another issue to which Velázquez almost certainly classify in Las Meninas. It was not viewed as a liberal art in Spain, as it was in Italy, but instead was considered as a handicraft. It is likely that by setting himself in royal company, Velázquez was arguing for raising the status of painting and that of the

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