DOI Heft:
Nr. 3-4
DOI Artikel:Witko, Andrzej: O treści Las Meninas Velázqueza
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49354#0342
332
Andrzej Witko
On the Content of Velazquez's 'Las Meninas'
Las Meninas, the masterpiece from 1656 by
Velazquez (full name in Spanish: Diego Rodrfguez
de Silva y Velazquez), continues to fascinate with
its exceptional ease of brush, the precision with
which it was carried out and its astonishing liberty of
composition. The picture's interpretation, revealing
the artist's genius, combining what is perceived as
the truth with intellectual enigma, is no straightfor-
ward matter. This is an exceptionally complicated
painting. In the flood of interpretational studies it is
most pertinent to distinguish four main currents: re-
alistic, sociological, political-cum-pedagogical and
philosophical. While failing to embrace all attempts
to properly decipher the picture's content, these cat-
egories classify them in the fullest possible way.
Having been initiated by Antonio Palomino, the
realistic notion of the representation as a spontane-
ous portrayal of court life is the oldest approach to
the picture. This interpretation accompanied the
18th-century way of understanding the image, which
in the ensuing century took the form of a standard
impressionistic work. Acknowledging the master-
piece as a genre painting, depicting the details with
precision, it was willingly compared with photo-
graphs. Researchers, having assumed that the
figures, including the monarchs, actually posed for
the artist, are intensely interested in the perspective,
and have attempted to discover the actual position-
ing of the individual people. In line with this
approach, the studies of Ramiro de Moya, Angel del
Campo Frances, John F. Moffitt and Martin Kemp,
who, among other things, such as providing
evidence that the mirror reflects the royal couple
painted by Velazquez, gave precise measurements of
the interiors portrayed in the painting.
The sociological approach was inaugurated by a
study by Charles de Tolnay from 1949, the first of its
kind in the literature about Las Meninas conducted
on the basis of the iconological method, in which the
picture was regarded as an intellectual work, the
allegory of an artistic creation and a manifesto of the
nobility of painting. A similar line was adopted by,
among others, Hallador Soehner, George Kubler,
Julian Gallego and above all Jonathan Brown. The
latter's work, titled On the Meaning of Las Meninas,
was recognised as belonging to the most convincing
interpretations of the picture as a testimony not only
of the nobility of painting but also of Velazquez him-
self, who resorted to this kind of manifestation with
an aim to being received into the Order of St. James.
The first study to follow a political-cum-
pedagogical line of interpretation of Las Meninas
was the controversial work by Jan Ameling Emmens
published in 1961, which placed the picture in the
context of emblematic culture, interpreting it as an
allegory of the triumph of circumspection over con
ceit. Other researchers, and in particular Jan
Białostocki, Santiago Sebastian, Joel Snyder,
Yasujiro Otaka, Jose Miguel Muhoz Jimenez, but
above all Alfonso E. Perez Sanchez and Manuela
Mena Marques, laid emphasis on the moralistic and
pedagogical progamme behind the painting or also
its political dimension.
The philosophical approach was introduced in
Les suivantes by Michel Foucault, who revealingly
turned his attention to the viewer's perspective, thus
opening the way to reflexions not only concerning
the author and his times, but equally the problems
inherently contained in the Western way of thinking
and visual representation. The most eminent studies
contributing to this approach include those by John
R. Searle, Leo Steinberg, Svetlana Alpers and Amy
M. Schmitter.
The multiplicity of interpretations has not led to
a comprehensive understanding of Velazquez's
work. Research related to the perspective depicted
in Las Meninas have revealed that the mirror was
intended to rcflect a portrait of the royal couple. If
the monarchs in person had been present in the
workshop at that time, they would have been stand-
ing between the canvas and viewer, in which case it
would be necessary to reject the hypothesis that
claims the viewer occupied the same place as the
rulers. Furthermore, if the mirror does not reflect
people but a portrait of the royal couple, it is possi-
blc that the king and queen were not actually present
at all, thereby explaining the behaviour of the fig-
ures depicted in isolation from the royal presence.
Over recent years emphasis has been laid on nu-
merous occasions that the picture was a private
work, addressed to a single viewer; namely to the
king, by whom it was viewed exclusively in his pri-
vate chamber. In this situation the painting's role as a
manifesto of painterly nobility and of Velazquez
himself should not be overstated, since Philip IV was
perfectly convinced on this question in relation to
emancipated art. It was also thanks to this ruler that
the painter's participation in the royal court's opin-
ion became a heady career which was to be crowned
by acceptance into the Order of St. James.
Translated by Peter Martyn
Andrzej Witko
On the Content of Velazquez's 'Las Meninas'
Las Meninas, the masterpiece from 1656 by
Velazquez (full name in Spanish: Diego Rodrfguez
de Silva y Velazquez), continues to fascinate with
its exceptional ease of brush, the precision with
which it was carried out and its astonishing liberty of
composition. The picture's interpretation, revealing
the artist's genius, combining what is perceived as
the truth with intellectual enigma, is no straightfor-
ward matter. This is an exceptionally complicated
painting. In the flood of interpretational studies it is
most pertinent to distinguish four main currents: re-
alistic, sociological, political-cum-pedagogical and
philosophical. While failing to embrace all attempts
to properly decipher the picture's content, these cat-
egories classify them in the fullest possible way.
Having been initiated by Antonio Palomino, the
realistic notion of the representation as a spontane-
ous portrayal of court life is the oldest approach to
the picture. This interpretation accompanied the
18th-century way of understanding the image, which
in the ensuing century took the form of a standard
impressionistic work. Acknowledging the master-
piece as a genre painting, depicting the details with
precision, it was willingly compared with photo-
graphs. Researchers, having assumed that the
figures, including the monarchs, actually posed for
the artist, are intensely interested in the perspective,
and have attempted to discover the actual position-
ing of the individual people. In line with this
approach, the studies of Ramiro de Moya, Angel del
Campo Frances, John F. Moffitt and Martin Kemp,
who, among other things, such as providing
evidence that the mirror reflects the royal couple
painted by Velazquez, gave precise measurements of
the interiors portrayed in the painting.
The sociological approach was inaugurated by a
study by Charles de Tolnay from 1949, the first of its
kind in the literature about Las Meninas conducted
on the basis of the iconological method, in which the
picture was regarded as an intellectual work, the
allegory of an artistic creation and a manifesto of the
nobility of painting. A similar line was adopted by,
among others, Hallador Soehner, George Kubler,
Julian Gallego and above all Jonathan Brown. The
latter's work, titled On the Meaning of Las Meninas,
was recognised as belonging to the most convincing
interpretations of the picture as a testimony not only
of the nobility of painting but also of Velazquez him-
self, who resorted to this kind of manifestation with
an aim to being received into the Order of St. James.
The first study to follow a political-cum-
pedagogical line of interpretation of Las Meninas
was the controversial work by Jan Ameling Emmens
published in 1961, which placed the picture in the
context of emblematic culture, interpreting it as an
allegory of the triumph of circumspection over con
ceit. Other researchers, and in particular Jan
Białostocki, Santiago Sebastian, Joel Snyder,
Yasujiro Otaka, Jose Miguel Muhoz Jimenez, but
above all Alfonso E. Perez Sanchez and Manuela
Mena Marques, laid emphasis on the moralistic and
pedagogical progamme behind the painting or also
its political dimension.
The philosophical approach was introduced in
Les suivantes by Michel Foucault, who revealingly
turned his attention to the viewer's perspective, thus
opening the way to reflexions not only concerning
the author and his times, but equally the problems
inherently contained in the Western way of thinking
and visual representation. The most eminent studies
contributing to this approach include those by John
R. Searle, Leo Steinberg, Svetlana Alpers and Amy
M. Schmitter.
The multiplicity of interpretations has not led to
a comprehensive understanding of Velazquez's
work. Research related to the perspective depicted
in Las Meninas have revealed that the mirror was
intended to rcflect a portrait of the royal couple. If
the monarchs in person had been present in the
workshop at that time, they would have been stand-
ing between the canvas and viewer, in which case it
would be necessary to reject the hypothesis that
claims the viewer occupied the same place as the
rulers. Furthermore, if the mirror does not reflect
people but a portrait of the royal couple, it is possi-
blc that the king and queen were not actually present
at all, thereby explaining the behaviour of the fig-
ures depicted in isolation from the royal presence.
Over recent years emphasis has been laid on nu-
merous occasions that the picture was a private
work, addressed to a single viewer; namely to the
king, by whom it was viewed exclusively in his pri-
vate chamber. In this situation the painting's role as a
manifesto of painterly nobility and of Velazquez
himself should not be overstated, since Philip IV was
perfectly convinced on this question in relation to
emancipated art. It was also thanks to this ruler that
the painter's participation in the royal court's opin-
ion became a heady career which was to be crowned
by acceptance into the Order of St. James.
Translated by Peter Martyn