Las Meninas
Diego Velázquez, 1656, Oil on canvas
This painting isn’t just a portrait — it’s a puzzle. At first glance, we’re looking at the Infanta Margarita (center), daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, surrounded by her attendants — the meninas, or ladies-in-waiting — along with a few other courtiers, a dog, and even a dwarf. But then, you notice the man behind the canvas. That’s Velázquez himself, painting…this painting?
In the mirror at the back of the room, you can just barely see the king and queen reflected. Are they the ones being painted? Are they us, the viewers? Is Velázquez making us complicit in the act of creation?
This is what makes Las Meninas so genius: it’s a painting about painting, about power, perspective, and presence. It breaks the fourth wall before the fourth wall even had a name.
Velázquez puts himself in the royal space, brush in hand, elevating the role of the artist — not just a craftsman, but a thinker, a peer, maybe even a philosopher.
