Las Meninas by Velázquez: What's Really in That Mirror? (1656)
In the summer of 1656, Diego Velázquez painted himself at work: standing before an enormous canvas in a high-ceilinged room of Madrid's Real Alcázar, brush in one hand, palette in the other, pausing mid-stroke to look out at whoever has just walked in. Everyone in the room is looking the same way — the five-year-old Infanta Margarita Theresa, her maids of honour, a dwarf, a mastiff, a chaperone in the shadows. What they're all looking at is a small, blurred mirror on the back wall, reflecting two figures who aren't otherwise in the room at all: King Philip IV and Queen Mariana of Austria. The question that has occupied art historians for more than three centuries is disarmingly simple. Who, exactly, is Velázquez painting? Quick facts Artist: Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) Date: 1656 Medium: Oil on canvas Collection: Museo del Prado, Madrid Notable fact: Velázquez wasn't yet a knight of the Order of Santiago when he painted this — the red cross on his chest was added to t...