Kloss asserts that Diego Velázquez was “one of the greatest painters in a European century”. Perhaps the most famous painting by Velazquez is his Maids of Honor, Las Meninas, painted about 1656. It has the distinction of being probably the first painting in which a living King and a painter at work are seen together in a studio” (L36, 20:11). The subject is multifaceted; the painting is entitled Maids of Honor, referring to the princess’ maids who are attending to her, but are not the focus of the work itself. It is also a self-portrait; Velazquez is the artist at work with his brush and palette poised with his canvas standings before him. At first it seems as though the figures and the artist are looking out at the observer and the observer
