Criticism of Diego Velazquez' "Las Meninas, Sebastian de Morra, and Baltasar Carlos and a Dwarf"
Diego Velazquez was called the "noblest and most commanding man among the artists of his country." He was a master realist, and no painter has surpassed him in the ability to seize essential features and fix them on canvas with a few broad, sure strokes. "His men and women seem to breathe," it has been said; "his horses are full of action and his dogs of life." Because of Velazquez' great skill in merging color, light, space, rhythm of line, and mass in such a way that all have equal value, he was known as "the painter's painter," as demonstrated in the paintings Las Meninas, Sebastian de Morra, and Baltasar Carlos and a Dwarf. Las Meninas is a pictorial summary and a commentary on the essential mystery of the visual world, as well as on the ambiguity that results when different states or levels interact or are juxtaposed. The painting of The Royal Family also known as Las Meninas has always been regarded as an unsurpassable masterpiece. According to Palomino, it 'was finished' in 1656, and, while Velazquez was painting it, the King, the Queen, and the Infantas Marìa Teresa and Margarita often came to watch him at work. In the painting, the painter himself is seen at the easel; the mirror on the rear wall reflects the ha
The bearded dwarf, in a green dress and gold-braided red over garment, is sitting on the floor. Velazquez built the composition on live diagonals, anchoring it, as it were, on the two which intersect at about the spot where the Infanta stands, and encompass at one end the shining mirror and the lit-up doorway and at the other the expanse of light which fans out in the foreground. Neither is there any other composition of his that is so vividly keyed to the space lying out of the picture frame. Others who entered the room could have seen it of course, but only the king had a part in the composition. Comparison of the identifiable paintings seen in Las Meninas with the palace inventory of 1686 has established that Velazquez faithfully reproduced the appearance of the gallery as it looked in the 1650s. It has been argued that, since these pictures, Pallas and Arachne and Apollo and Marsyas, 'symbolize the victory of divine art over human craftsmanship, or the victory of true art over unskillfulness', they ought to be taken as 'commentaries which explain the inspired attitude' in which Velazquez depicted himself, in 'a moment of suspense', concentrating 'on the inner image' which the sixteenth century mannerists called disegno interno as distinct from disegno esterno, the latter being definable as the putting on canvas of the artist's inner image. The fifty-seven-year-old painter represented himself, in this painting, without a wrinkle on his pensive face, his dark chestnut hair flowing down to his shoulders. The resulting impression of austere chambers decorated with magnificent hangings and pictures was indelible in the minds of visitors to the Alcazar. (They also exaggerate the novelty of the way in which the spectator is involved in the picture. On one level, they can be regarded toys, which are now being removed from the prince by the dwarf, who seems to edge off the scene toward the left-hand corner of the picture. The contrasting perfection and imperfection of the two little figures almost unavoidably becomes a metaphor of the social and natural order. The placement of the painting in this setting implies some important information because the pieza del despacho was a room destined for the personal use of the king. The dwarf's petulant temper is rendered by the play of thick light upon shadow, which adds to the distortion and carnality of his features, and by his droll pose; his fore-shortened legs, with the upturned soles of the shoes on his little feet, and the low floor line make his torso look large, and the quite symmetric pull of his short, forceful arms give his chest the appearance of a monumental bust, which conflicts with the diminutive and richly braided over garment which hangs from his shoulders hardly touching the floor where he sits. These ideas tacitly assume that the picture was meant to be seen by the public-at-large, as if it were hanging in an important museum, as it is today. On the sidewall, the pictures are accommodated in a three-tier arrangement in which the small canvases are hung progressively higher, culminating in a cornice-like group of Flemish landscape at the top.
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Acceptance Essays
