mirror allows King Phillip IV to command a unique presence in the painting that is projected throughout the painting. Standing at the center of this painting is Infanta Margarita who is five years old at the time of this painting (Umberger 97). Margarita was the only daughter of King Phillip IV and Queen Mariana (Umberger 97). Margarita is painted with her head turned slightly away to the left yet her gaze is prominent to the observer’s eye perspective. Her royalty is experienced in the difference in
to Palomino, it ‘was finished’ in 1656, and, while Velàzquez 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 half-length figures of Philip IV and Queen Mariana standing under a red curtain. The Infanta Margarita is in the center, attended by two Meninas, or maids of honor, Doña Isabel de Velasco and Doña Marìa Sarmiento, who curtsy
the Thirty Years’ War, and paid little effort to governing his country. He had lost power, and his portrait in the mirror of Las Meninas illustrates the shadow of what Philip had once been. The center and main focus of the painting is La Infanta Margarita, Philip’s five-year-old daughter. Light streams through a window onto her face, illuminating her with a golden light. Two of her meninas, or ladies-in-waiting, are located on either side of the princess, one kneeling and offering her a glass of water
Diego Velazquez not only painted beautiful and detailed artwork, but also created a broad story for the viewer to recreate and reinvent. One such painting, according to the Prado Museum, is “Las Meninas,” in which he tells the story of Infanta Margarita, her little meninas, and of course her parents (“Museo del Prado”). Velazquez effectively uses baroque style, intricate colors, and accurate positions in “Las Meninas” to allude that social status is imperative. First, Velasquez is famous for his