THE PAINTER AND LAS MENINAS 

One of the very first writings on the painting and the painter is this by Antonio Palomino , in his biography of Spanish painters published in 1724. Because all subsequent studies of the painting have depended on Palomino, it is worthwhile to include here by quoting him in full:

“Among the marvellous paintings made by Don Diego Velázquez was the large picture with the portrait of the Empress – then Infanta of Spain – Doña Margarita María de Austria when she was very young. There are no words to describe her great charm, liveliness, and beauty, but her portrait itself is the best panegyric. At her feet kneels Doña María Agustina – one of the Queen's Meninas and daughter of Don Diego Sarmiento – serving her water from a clay jug. At her other side is Doña Isabel de Velasco – daughter of Don Bernardino López de Ayala y Velasco, Count of Fuensalida and His Majesty's Gentleman of the Bedchamber, also a Menina and later Lady of Honour – In an attitude and with a movement precisely as if she were speaking. In the foreground is a dog lying down, and next to it is the midget Nicolasito Pertusato, who treads on it so as to show – together with the ferociousness of its appearance – its tameness and its gentleness when tried; for when it was painting it remained motionless in whatever attitude it was placed. This figure is dark and prominent and gives great harmony to the composition. Behind it is Maribárbola, a dwarf of formidable aspect; farther back and in half-shadow is Doña Marcela de Ulloa – Lady of Honour – and a Guarda Damas, who give a marvellous effect to the figural composition.

On the other side is Don Diego Velázquez painting; he has a palette of colours in the left hand and the brush in his right, the double key of the Bedchamber and of Chamberlain of the Palace at his waist, and on his breast the badge of Santiago, which was painting in after his death by order of His Majesty; for when Velázquez painted this picture the King had not yet bestowed on him that honour. Some say that it was His Majesty himself who painted it for the encouragement that having such an exalted chronicler would give to the practitioners of this very noble art. I regard this portrait of Velázquez as no lesser in art than that of Phidias, famous sculptor and painter, who placed his portrait on the shield of the statue of the goddess Minerva that he had made, crafting it with such cunning that if it were to be removed from its place, the whole statue would also come apart. Titian made his name no less eternal by portraying himself holding in his hands another portrait with the effigy of King Philip II, and just as Phidias´s name was never effaced while the statue of Minerva remained whole, and Titian's as long as that of King Philip II endured, so too that Velázquez will endure from century to century, as long as that of the lofty and precious Margarita endures, in whose shadow he immortalizes his image under the benign influence of such a sovereign mistress.

The canvas on which he is painting is large and nothing of what is painted on it can be seen, for it is viewed from the back, the side that rests on the easel. Velázquez demonstrated his brilliant talent by revealing what he was painting though as ingenious device, making use of the crystalline brightness of a mirror painted at the back of the gallery and facing the picture, where the reflection, or repercussion, of our Catholic King and Queen, Philip and Mariana, is represented. On the walls of the gallery that is depicted here and where it was painted (which is in the Prince's Apartments), various pictures can be seen, even though dimly lit. They can be recognized as works by Rubens and as representing scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses . This gallery has several windows seen in diminishing size, which make its depth seem great; the light enters through them from the left, but only from first and last ones. The floor is plain and done with such good perspective that it looks as if one could walk on it; the same amount of ceiling can be seen. To the mirror's left there is an open door leading to a staircase, and there stands José Nieto, the Queen's Chamberlain; the resemblance is great despite the distance and the diminution in size and light where Velázquez assumes him to be. There is atmosphere between the figures, the composition is superb, the idea new; in brief, there is no praise that can match the taste and skill of this work, for it is reality, and not painting.

Don Diego Velázquez finished it in the year 1656, leaving in it much to admire and nothing to surpass. If he had not been so modest, Velázquez could have said about this painting, what Zeuxis said about his beautiful Penelope, a work of which he was greatly satisfied: In visurum aliquem, facilius, quam imitaturum, that it would be easier to envy it than to imitate it.

This painting was highly esteemed by His Majesty, and while it was being executed he went frequently to see it being painted. So did our lady Doña Mariana of Austria and the Infantas and ladies, who came down often, considering this a delightful treat and entertainment. It was placed in His Majesty's office in the lower Apartments, among other excellent works.

When Luca Giordano came – in our day – and got to see it, he was asked by King Charles II, who saw him looking thunderstruck, “What do you think of it?” and he said, “Sire, this is the Theology of Painting.” By which he meant that just as Theology is the highest among the branches of knowledge, so was that picture the best there was in Painting .

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THE PAINTING

‘ Las Meninas ' was installed in the private office of the king, the ‘Cuarto Bajo de Verano' a semisubterranean room in the Madrid Alcázar (royal palace). The painting's proximity to the king himself certainly indicates his partiality to the work, although it should be noted that his eclectic taste was reflected in the other twenty-five paintings listed in the 1666 inventory of the apartment, including Pomona and Vertumnus by Rubens and Van Dyck´s Selene and Endymion Surprised by a Satyr , as well as marble bureaus inlaid with jasper and seven large mirrors with fretwork frames of bronze and ebony. Although these summer quarters of the king were on a rather intimate scale as compared to the royal palace in its entirety, it was decorated with an eye toward the exalted, although restricted, persons who were able to visit the king there: members of the royal family and family servants, cardinals and papal nuncios, viceroys, presidents of the Council of State, and the king's minister (his valido, or ‘favourite'). After the death of Philip IV, Las Meninas remained in the Alcázar until its destruction in a fire in 1734. The painting was thereafter moved to the new royal palace, the Palacio de Oriente, where it was seen in the ‘Sala de Conversación' in 1776 and, somewhat later, in the king's ‘Sala de Cena' (dining room), a space now called the ‘Antecámara de Gasparini'. All this to say that Las Meninas was seen by few and thus little known until much of the royal art collection was moved into the new Museo del Prado, which opened to the public in 1819.

Extract taken from the introduction by Suzanne L. Stratton-Pruitt in the book ‘Velázquez's Las Meninas '

Palomino's theoretical treatise, the Museo pictórico y escala óptica , was published in two volumes in Madrid in 1715 and 1724. The biographies of the artists, called El Parnaso español pintoresco laureado , appeared in 1724 as a third volume bound with the second. This quotation by Palomino is taken from his book ‘ Lives of the Eminent Spanish Painters and Sculptors' by Antonio Palomino (Cambridge University Press, 1987)