The Las Meninas portrait is complex and involves Baroque characteristics. Not only is it very painterly in the way that it just lets highlights and the brushwork sit on the surface, not blended in, but at the same time it involves a tonalistic approach to the shading with shades of white turning into gray and eventually to black.
Las Meninas is also complex with the subjects and objects within the work. The portrait or mirror in the Las Meninas work is the same scale as the Las Meninas work and it’s very mysterious in its nature. It seems as if Velaquez left it up to interpretation of the viewers on what exactly it might be. The King and Queen may be reflected in a mirror and may be a representation of reality or it could just simply be a portrait of the King and Queen. This ambiguous issue has divided up critics who were already divided up over other issues …show more content…
As Michael Atlee puts it in his writing, “Las Meninas: The World’s Best Painting,” the work is like a puzzle. He believes that the King and Queen in the square box in the background is actually a mirror and when the viewer stands in that place of where the mirror would reflect, the viewer then becomes royal-like. Kenneth Clark in “Velazquez’ ‘Las Meninas,’” believes that we are right next to the King and Queen who you can see through the mirror with them being so distant and they look down a room in the Alcazar. Even a guy like Blake Gopnik in his article called “David Stork Uses Science to See a World of Art Through Old Masters’ Eyes,” described how David Stork used a computer rendered three dimensional model of the scene portrayed in Las Meninas. He has come to his own understanding that the artist has put himself in the work to paint the King and
Las Meninas is also complex with the subjects and objects within the work. The portrait or mirror in the Las Meninas work is the same scale as the Las Meninas work and it’s very mysterious in its nature. It seems as if Velaquez left it up to interpretation of the viewers on what exactly it might be. The King and Queen may be reflected in a mirror and may be a representation of reality or it could just simply be a portrait of the King and Queen. This ambiguous issue has divided up critics who were already divided up over other issues …show more content…
As Michael Atlee puts it in his writing, “Las Meninas: The World’s Best Painting,” the work is like a puzzle. He believes that the King and Queen in the square box in the background is actually a mirror and when the viewer stands in that place of where the mirror would reflect, the viewer then becomes royal-like. Kenneth Clark in “Velazquez’ ‘Las Meninas,’” believes that we are right next to the King and Queen who you can see through the mirror with them being so distant and they look down a room in the Alcazar. Even a guy like Blake Gopnik in his article called “David Stork Uses Science to See a World of Art Through Old Masters’ Eyes,” described how David Stork used a computer rendered three dimensional model of the scene portrayed in Las Meninas. He has come to his own understanding that the artist has put himself in the work to paint the King and