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Diego Velázquez · 1656
painting
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1656
Museo del Prado
Velázquez places himself at a large canvas beside the young Infanta Margaret Theresa and her court. The room is his studio in Madrid’s Royal Alcázar. A court painter’s workplace becomes the setting of the royal group.
Find the red cross on the painter’s chest. Velázquez received the Order of Santiago in 1659, after the picture was completed, and the cross was added later. A subsequent honour enters the earlier self-portrait.
In 1623, Philip IV was so pleased with a portrait Velázquez painted of him that he made Velázquez one of his court painters, a post he held for the rest of his career. He worked through Spain's Golden Age, when Cervantes was writing Don Quixote and Lope de Vega his plays.
From 1651, Velázquez held a senior post in the royal household that left him little time to paint. His last years went mostly on royal portraits, and he fell ill and died in 1660.
In 1647, Velázquez was put in charge of modernising the old Alcázar palace in Madrid. Las Meninas is set in a room there that he used as his own studio, where he painted himself at work beside the young Infanta Margaret Theresa and her court.
On his chest, Velázquez painted the red cross of the Order of Santiago, though he had not yet received the honour when he finished the picture. The king had it added afterward, once Velázquez was admitted to the order in 1659.
1623. Philip IV is so pleased with a portrait that he makes Velázquez one of his court painters.
1647. Velázquez is put in charge of modernising the old Alcázar palace, and sets up his studio in one of its rooms.
1651. Velázquez becomes a senior officer of the royal household, work that leaves him little time to paint.
In his last years, spent mostly on royal portraits, Velázquez paints himself into the grandest of them: Las Meninas, beside the Infanta Margaret Theresa and her court.
1659. Velázquez is admitted to the Order of Santiago. Its red cross is added afterward to his own image in the finished picture.
1660. Velázquez falls ill and dies.
Velázquez includes himself at work within the royal group. The painter’s own presence becomes part of the scene he depicts.
