When and where did Velázquez paint Las Meninas?
Velázquez paints Las Meninas
Velázquez pinta Las Meninas
1656. Diego Velázquez, born in Seville in 1599 and court painter to Philip IV since 1623, painted Las Meninas ('The Maids of Honour') in 1656 in a room of the…
Where: Spain, Madrid
What happened
Diego Velázquez, born in Seville in 1599 and court painter to Philip IV since 1623, painted Las Meninas ('The Maids of Honour') in 1656 in a room of the Alcázar of Madrid that he used as a studio. The five-year-old Infanta Margarita stands at the centre with her meninas, the dwarfs Maribárbola and Nicolasito, a dog, a nun and a guard; Velázquez himself stands at a huge canvas, brush in hand; the king and queen appear in a mirror at the back, as if standing where we stand; a courtier pauses in a lit doorway. The red cross of the Order of Santiago on the painter's chest was added after he was knighted in 1658. Critics have called it the 'theology of painting' and argued for centuries about what it means. It hangs in the Prado.
Say it
En Las Meninas, Velázquez se pintó a sí mismo.
In Las Meninas, Velázquez painted himself.
Why it matters
It is the most discussed painting in Spanish art, the climax of the Golden Age in paint, and the reason the Prado is a pilgrimage for painters from Goya to Picasso.
There today
- See
- Las Meninas hangs in the Prado in Madrid; stand in front of it and look for the king and queen in the mirror and for Velázquez himself at his huge canvas.
Connected
- The Siglo de Oro (c. 1492–1681)
- Philip II builds El Escorial (1563–1584)
Sources
- Las Meninas or The Family of Philip IV — Web Gallery of Art
- Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) — The National Gallery, London