Diego Velazquez is considered the greatest Spanish painter of the Baroque era. In his most famous painting, he addresses issues relating to seeing. What do we see in mirrors, in paintings, in "real" space? In pictures within pictures?
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| Velazquez's Las Meninas (1656)
"Las Meninas" translates into "The Maids of Honor." The painting focuses on a Spanish princess--Infanta Margarita--who is standing between two of her maids-in-waiting. Behind her is a woman dressed in mourning clothes and her companion. There is a woman who is a dwarf in the foreground by a large dog. Velazquez painted himself standing in front of a canvas staring out at the viewer or perhaps at a mirror that reflects this whole scene. In the paintings on the back wall is the King and Queen of Spain as well as paintings by a Dutch artist he admired (Gardner 547).
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