On Velázquez and the Liberal Arts

Abstract

Among all of Velazquez's works, certainly the extraordinary picture now known as Las Meninas represents the artist's most personal statement about himself. The inclusion in it of his own portrait—the single secure example of a self-image in his entire production—would alone support the claim. The physical location of the depicted scene also projects a personal realm. Although perhaps not understandable as the artist's studio in a strict sense, the room shown nonetheless certainly refers to the palace interior in which Velazquez lived and worked (Fig. 1).1 Velazquez portrays himself in the act of painting; he stands behind a group of figures who are ranged around the Infanta Margarita, youngest daughter of Philip IV and first offspring of his second queen, Mariana of Austria (Fig. 2). The huge canvas on which Velazquez apparently works, angled at the left of the space and only incompletely visible, is turned away from the spectator. The subject of the painting in progress on its surface therefore remains u...