Is Velazquez' Las Meninas a Virtual Room ?
Abstract
The painting raises many questions about reality and illusion of
reality; in another word, what is real and what is unreal in his painting? What
seen in the painting is an illusion of reality. The artist has an illusive
unique setting to paint: a group of a princess surrounded by her maids of honor
and himself. He allows his easel and paints occupy about one third of the
painting. At the same time, we don’t see the picture inside the picture, we
only see its back.
What does he paint? Is it the setting we
see? Is it the king and the queen who are reflected in the back mirror? Is he
painting himself? Where does he stand to paint his Las Meninas? Is all
we see including the artist are considered to be another mirror reflection?
There are many
interpretations, but they are always ours; how do we perceive the piece of art?
The most valid answer relates the painting to Velazquez’ own perception of
visual art. Art is the main hero of the painting which is symbolized by the
artist, easel, paints, and the artist studio.
Looking at this
painting evokes the same feeling of being in a virtual place with virtual
people. His studio is full of people, but no one is present, all are busy with
themselves, they are there and not there. This is the case in chat rooms; they
are not real, only exist in our minds. You meet nicknames and hear many stories
and share yours as well. A confusion of reality and unreality occurs to most
people. Are you present when you are online? Is what meant by real presence the
physical presence or the mental presence?
Velazquez’
Las Meninas is about what we neither know nor see. The same case is our feelings to those
virtual faceless friends whom we get to know by the new technologies. Although
the paper answer some of these questions, some remain ready for further
investigations. For my full paper, click here
Introduction:
This paper discusses the artist's real and the
unreal presence in visual art and in virtual world. We ask ourselves this question: why does an
artist sometimes include himself in his art work? Is it one thing to paint himself, and another
to enclose his ideas and philosophy in his art work? In the latter case, is the work of art
considered to be the artist's presence?
Presence is not a modern issue; it has a long history, dating back to
pre-historic cave paintings which showed the early presence of human beings and
animals. But presence has always been confusing because it relatively
engages an individual's conception.
I will relate this painting to any chat room in the
virtual world, in terms of reality and unreality.
Diego Velazquez (1599-1660):
Velazquez, one of the world's greatest artists, is the
court painter of Philip IV, king of
Las Meninas opens the door to a lot of
arguments concerning space, time, illusion, reality and unreality. It is a remarkable illusion of reality which
critics claim has never been surpassed.
The painting will be analyzed for the sake of the artist's presence and
illusion of reality.
The Maids of Honor (Las Meninas), 1656:
This painting is about a group of people: a princess
and four girls, a man and a woman, a man in the background, a painter with his
brushes before a large canvas, a dog and a shadow of two people in a mirror on
the back wall of a room. Velazquez
chooses to present a representation of himself and of fine arts. He occupies a larger space than the
princess. His three-quartered pose is
more appealing to the viewer than hers.
The princess -the Infanta Dona Margarita, her two maids and the two
female dwarfs look like wax toys, statues, in contrast with his fully alive
appearance. He and the back of his long
inclined easel are pulling the spectator inward. His presence takes over the attention and
leads to many questions such as: where does he stand to paint this
painting? The very possible answer is
that all the figures in the painting including himself and his easel are mirror
reflections. Some painters use the
mirror to extend the space in front of the painting. This "… allows for the inclusion of the
viewer into the narrative of the picture" (Stengel). When spectators
become part of the art work, their presence is another representation. By this involvement, Velazquez eliminates the
barriers between reality and unreality.
"Some painters seemed to believe that paintings were in direct
competition with mirrors. They saw
paintings as (ideally) exact imitations of the visual world, just as mirrors
were faithful reflections of it" (Andreae). The mirror shows a reflection of two figures,
almost shadows, the queen and the king who are "visiting the artist's
studio as Alexander the Great visited the studio of Apelles in the ancient
times" (
The use of frontal light
in a dark room theatrically helps to perceive the narration as performed on a
stage. Velasquez develops a special
skill in his use of lights and shades, a technique which is also seen in Leonardo's
and Rembrandt's works. Light and shadow
adds volume to each form; hence, we perceive the figures as three-dimension
forms.
The painting encourages
many questions to be asked. Is it a
painting about the painter himself, or the princess and her maids? If he was painting the princess, he would
have chosen a different setting to fit her Royal presence and luxurious
dress. But he chooses his dark studio
full of paintings for the background, not any Royal hall. This shows a lot of emphasis on fine arts and
concern about the artist's honor and dignity.
He brings the princess and her maids to his studio instead of going to
them. Velazquez is the primary
character, not she. Even if he excludes
himself from the crowd, he would still be symbolically present because of the
domination of his angled easel.
Although the painting
presents a group of people, everybody seems alone in the room. "No one seems too prominent, each is
easily related to the other, and all breathe the same air" (
The whole story could be
made up. It is an unreal setting;
therefore, there is neither a princess nor a mirror. Whether there are people in his studio or
none, there are two facts. On one hand,
there is a real painting called The Maids of Honor in
Is Velazquez' Las
Meninas a Virtual Room ?
Looking at Velazquez'
painting recalls the same feeling we have when we project ourselves into chat
rooms for illusive shelter. "The
distinction between reality and unreality is increasingly blurred. It is becoming
more and more difficult to draw a sharp distinction between the real and the
unreal" (Lochhead). In the unreal
world, we encounter similar characters: a princess-like figure, an arrogant
hero, a clown, an observer, etc... Why
do some of us flee to unreality? Many
factors make us feel unsatisfied with our real world. The rapid tempo of life, the slow decadence
of moral standard, the political corruption, the aggressive wars everywhere and
the burden of materialistic needs are some factors negatively influencing our
daily performance. The work we do is not
enough and the love we give and take, as well, is not what we need. Our dreams and ambitions too are not
accomplished. Oftentimes, we are mostly
absent, busy with our dreams, imaginations, sorrows and frustrations. Our presence in reality is no longer
available. We are more present and
comfortable with unreality because we feel free to say what we want. This situation is called "anarchy"
in which no one enforces his will (Lochhead).
This statement recalls
It is a sort of
contradiction to feel unreal in reality and real in unreality. In the unreal world, we don't have to wear
our masks to satisfy people. On the
contrary, some are behind masks to hide their real characters when they move to
the unreal world; they are transformed and feel happy about their fake
personalities. These people choose masks
while they have the chance to take them off and relax.
We occasionally reject
the stable reality we live in for the favor of the unknown, and enjoy chatting
with those faceless friends whether they cheer us up or hurt us. These rooms are illusions, we know that; they
only exist in our minds. The real
problem here is losing the reality itself, not the sense of reality which is
already lost, living in isolation with our infatuation. The more presence we
have in unreality, the less presence and contact we have with reality. We live the unreality because we want to have
presence; we talk, express ourselves with others and we are heard. More so,
we all need time and space to live our imaginations that we can't attain
in reality. Is our presence real, in
terms of space and time or are we transformed into a few typed words mixed with
feelings, wishes, tears, laughs, regrets and grief?
Who is real and who
is unreal? Are unreality and illusion
one thing? What is said about Velazquez' painting –in terms of its reality and
unreality- is applied in virtual rooms too.
There are also two facts: one is that there are real people all over the
world live an unsatisfactory life for reasons already mentioned. They try to be connected together through one
of the modern technologies of our age to express themselves. The other fact is that these people are
transformed into nicknames to live a few hours as unreal people and forget
their reality. In the painting, we have a real painting and
a real artist, and inside, there are an unreal painting and an unreal
artist. We accept all written
interpretations for how do we read and perceive The Maids of Honor,
which may not what is in Velazquez' mind at all, but ours. In like manner, we
also accept that some people are using the written communication, transforming
themselves into a few words and going
online for their own reasons.
