Criticism of Diego Velazquez' "Las Meninas, Sebastian de Morra, and Baltasar Carlos and a Dwarf"

A detailed Summary of Criticism of Diego Velazquez' "Las Meninas, Sebastian de Morra, and Baltasar Carlos and a Dwarf"

Diego Velazquez was called the "noblest and most commanding man among the artists of his country." He was a master realist, and no painter has surpassed him in the ability to seize essential features and fix them on canvas with a few broad, sure strokes. "His men and women seem to breathe," it has been said; "his horses are full of action and his dogs of life." Because of Velazquez' great skill in merging color, light, space, rhythm of line, and mass in such a way that all have equal value, he was known as "the painter's painter," as demonstrated in the paintings Las Meninas, Sebastian de Morra, and Baltasar Carlos and a Dwarf.

Las Meninas is a pictorial summary and a commentary on the essential mystery of the visual world, as well as on the ambiguity that results when different states or levels interact or are juxtaposed. The painting of The Royal Family also known as Las Meninas has always been regarded as an unsurpassable masterpiece. According to Palomino, it 'was finished' in 1656, and, while Velazquez 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 ha

d to an audience of one, Philip IV. Others who entered the room could have seen it of course, but only the king had a part in the composition.

In these royal portraits, whatever the interpretation Velazquez made or whatever emotional reaction he experienced he kept to himself. Royalty, courtliness of the most rigid character was his task to portray not individual personality. Through his practice of using pigment in short or long, thin or thick, apparently hasty and spontaneous but actually most skillfully calculated strokes, Velazquez was the precursor of the modern practice or direct painting.

Sebastian de Morra is the most forceful of all the dwarf portraits. By setting the figure against a dark, unidentified background, Velazquez permits no distractions from the direct confrontation of the viewer and the subject. The bearded dwarf, in a green dress and gold-braided red over garment, is sitting on the floor. The dwarf's petulant temper is rendered by the play of thick light upon shadow, which adds to the distortion and carnality of his features, and by his droll pose; his fore-shortened legs, with the upturned soles of the shoes on his little feet, and the low floor line make his torso look large, and the quite symmetric pull of his short, forceful arms give his chest the appearance of a monumental bust, which conflicts with the diminutive and richly braided over garment which hangs from his shoulders hardly touching the floor where he sits.

In the painting, Baltasar Carlos and a dwarf, standing at one side of Baltasar Carlos is a dwarf, presumably one of the companions of the prince, who holds two playthings, an apple and a rattle. The objects are essential to the significance of the picture. On one level, they can be regarded toys, which are now being removed from the prince by the dwarf, who seems to edge off the scene toward the left-hand corner of the picture. At the moment when the oath was sworn, this child became the heir to the most powerful monarchy in Europe, and thus was no more in need of toys. The parallel shapes of the toys and those symbols of worldly power, the scepter and orb, also suggest the implicit reference to the prince's kingly future. And perhaps there is also a hint of the difficult choice between pleasure and duty, which would one day face this child, as it did every worldly ruler. Velazquez' conceptualization of this transcendental event signals a different approach to court portraiture which enriched the traditional repertory of poses and setting by employing a form of allusive, unobtrusive symbolism.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Baltasar Carlos, Meninas Velazquez', Las Meninas, King Queen, Apollo Marsyas, Diego Velazquez, Marìa Sarmiento, Michel Foucault, Doña Marcela, Infanta Margarita, las meninas, baltasar carlos, carlos dwarf, baltasar carlos dwarf, king queen, rear wall, sebastian de, sebastian de morra, de morra, philip iv, pieza del despacho, meninas regarded, mirror rear wall, royal family, las meninas regarded,

Approximate Word count = 2003
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts