Las Meninas is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego Velazquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age.
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10 Facts About Las Meninas
2.
Las Meninas has long been recognised as one of the most important paintings in the history of Western art.
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3.
Las Meninas seems to have been given an unusual degree of freedom in the role.
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4.
Las Meninas supervised the decoration and interior design of the rooms holding the most valued paintings, adding mirrors, statues and tapestries.
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5.
Las Meninas was responsible for the sourcing, attribution, hanging and inventory of many of the Spanish king's paintings.
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6.
Las Meninas is rendered in silhouette and appears to hold open a curtain on a short flight of stairs, with an unclear wall or space behind.
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7.
Elusiveness of Las Meninas, according to Dawson Carr, "suggests that art, and life, are an illusion".
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8.
Las Meninas placed his only confirmed self-portrait in a room in the royal palace surrounded by an assembly of royalty, courtiers, and fine objects that represent his life at court.
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9.
Many aspects of Las Meninas relate to earlier works by Velazquez in which he plays with conventions of representation.
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10.
In 1879 John Singer Sargent painted a small-scale copy of Las Meninas, while his 1882 painting The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit is a homage to Velazquez's panel.
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