Art Analysis: Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas

Observed as a piece of appreciation for beauty and intellect, Diego Velazquez’s painting Las Meninas, 1656, is considered one of the greatest portrayal of the Spanish court in the 17 century. At that time of history the Spanish had preconceived ideas about art, they viewed it as being low in status, but when Velazquez finished Las Meninas, his skills as a painter and the complex of his humanistic intellectualism has cleared the depicted ideas of the Spanish regarding art. Velazquez effectively combines refined details and profound representations to create a court picture (Brown, 87) that efficiently describes the situated presence of a sovereign head of state. Brown also describes Velazquez’s use of Illusionism and Naturalism as a faithful

As was the case of Velazquez but things have turned around for him. At the order of the king the Cross was painted onto Velazquez chest, which indicates that he was a member of the Order of Santiago’s and some say that king Philip IV had painted it himself (Kahr, 225). “Velazquez intended this huge and visually complex work, with its cunning contrasts of true spaces, mirrored spaces, and picture spaces, to elevate both himself and the profession of painting” (Kleiner, 2009). In the terms of the techniques Velazquez used on this great piece of painting. Velazquez first started to apply the colors, using different kinds of densities according to his desired effects he wants to apply for the object he wants to paint. His colors are comprised of lead white and mixed it with small number of different pigments. Sometimes the pigments come out coarsely ground, or finely ground, but with his technique he applies the pigments with superimposed strokes, which gives a texture to the surface of the painting. From looking at Las Meninas, Velazquez’s ranges of colors are quite limited. He basically used the same half deposit of pigments on the palette he is holding in the painting, except for blue or any shades that has anything to do with painting. Velazquez made certain blurriness in the face and hands of the subjects painted in the canvas, which is done with a brush filled with a liquid

However; one can stop to think about this situation and realize that this way of explanation can not be known by just looking at the painting. As we can say the mirror is confusing, which makes the viewer to reconsider whether the image of the king and queen causes them to consider where the images of the king and queen actually come from and what the reflection means. Michel Foucault had put an advanced explanation to the plot that was put in place by Brown in the book called The Order of Things. Foucault’s book formally says that the reflection of the king and queen is the reverse of the great canvas represented on the left side, where you can see Velazquez standing in front of it (Foucault, 10). We can say that the difference between Foucault’s and Brown’s interpretation show that there are recognizably different, legitimate differences in a way of explaining the painting. As for Michel Foucault, all of these conundrums are not to his interest. He is not concerned with the content of Las Meninas, but with its structure. For most writers, Las Meninas, is not representing a historical event,