ĭuring the 1640s and 1650s, Velázquez served as both court painter and curator of Philip IV's expanding collection of European art. After Velázquez's death, Philip wrote "I am crushed" in the margin of a memorandum on the choice of his successor. Although constrained by rigid etiquette, the art-loving king seems to have had a close relationship with the painter. Philip had his own chair in the studio and would often sit and watch Velázquez at work. In the early 1650s he gave Velázquez the Pieza Principal ( main room) of the late Balthasar Charles's living quarters, by then serving as the palace museum, to use as his studio, where Las Meninas is set. Velázquez painted portraits of Mariana and her children, and although Philip himself resisted being portrayed in his old age he did allow Velázquez to include him in Las Meninas. Subsequently, she had a short-lived brother Philip Prospero (1657–1661), and then Charles (1661–1700) arrived, who succeeded to the throne as Charles II at the age of three. Lacking an heir, Philip married Mariana of Austria in 1649, and Margaret Theresa (1651–1673) was their first child, and their only one at the time of the painting. Philip IV's first wife, Elizabeth of France, died in 1644, and their only son, Balthasar Charles, died two years later. When he painted Las Meninas, he had been with the royal household for 33 years. During the remaining eight years of his life, he painted only a few works, mostly portraits of the royal family. The post brought him status and material reward, but its duties made heavy demands on his time. Nonetheless, Velázquez worked his way up through the ranks of the court of Philip IV, and in February 1651 was appointed palace chamberlain ( aposentador mayor del palacio). Painting was regarded as a craft, not an art such as poetry or music. In 17th-century Spain, painters rarely enjoyed high social status. She left Spain for her marriage in Vienna the same year. The background figures include her young brother Charles II and the dwarf Maribarbola, also in Las Meninas. The Infanta Margaret Theresa (1651–1673), in mourning dress for her father in 1666, by del Mazo. More recently, it has been described as "Velázquez's supreme achievement, a highly self-conscious, calculated demonstration of what painting could achieve, and perhaps the most searching comment ever made on the possibilities of the easel painting". The Baroque painter Luca Giordano said that it represents the "theology of painting", and in 1827 the president of the Royal Academy of Arts Sir Thomas Lawrence described the work in a letter to his successor David Wilkie as "the true philosophy of the art". Las Meninas has long been recognised as one of the most important paintings in the history of Western art. They appear to be placed outside the picture space in a position similar to that of the viewer, although some scholars have speculated that their image is a reflection from the painting Velázquez is shown working on. In the background there is a mirror that reflects the upper bodies of the king and queen. Velázquez looks outwards, beyond the pictorial space to where a viewer of the painting would stand. Just behind them, Velázquez portrays himself working at a large canvas. The five-year-old Infanta Margaret Theresa is surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs and a dog. Some of the figures look out of the canvas towards the viewer, while others interact among themselves. Sánchez Cantón to depict a room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured in a particular moment as if in a snapshot. It has become one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting, due to the way its complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and the uncertain relationship it creates between the viewer and the figures depicted. Las Meninas ( Spanish for ' The Ladies-in-waiting ' pronounced ) is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. For other uses, see Las Meninas (disambiguation).
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