World Museum Guide
#11

Most Searched Artwork #11 Worldwide

Las Meninas

Diego Velázquez · 1656 · Museo del Prado

Quick Answer

Las Meninas is a large oil painting by Spanish Baroque artist Diego Velázquez, completed in 1656. It depicts the Infanta Margarita Teresa of Spain surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting (meninas), attendants, a dwarf, and a dog in the Royal Alcázar of Madrid. Velázquez himself appears in the painting, at work on a large canvas. The painting is displayed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid and is considered one of the most analysed and debated paintings in Western art history.

Las Meninas by Velázquez — the Infanta Margarita surrounded by ladies-in-waiting in the Royal Palace

Public domain — Diego Velázquez, 1656. Museo del Prado, Madrid / Wikimedia Commons.

At a Glance

Artist
Diego Velázquez (1599–1660)
Created
1656
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
318 × 276 cm (125 × 109 in)
Location
Room 012, Ground Floor, Prado

Find it at

Museo del Prado

Madrid, Spain

"The painting that asks who is looking at whom — and has never stopped posing the question"

History & Story

Velázquez painted Las Meninas in 1656 during his years as court painter to King Philip IV of Spain. He had unrestricted access to the royal apartments and used the actual studio room in the Royal Alcázar (later destroyed by fire in 1734) as his setting. The painting appears to capture a moment in which the Infanta Margarita visits the painter at work.

The complex question of what Velázquez was painting on the large canvas visible on the left — and who is reflected in the mirror at the back of the room, where the King and Queen appear — has generated centuries of philosophical and art historical debate. Foucault opened his 1966 book The Order of Things with an extended analysis of Las Meninas as the founding image of modern representation.

Why It Matters

Las Meninas deconstructs the viewer's relationship to the image in a way unprecedented for its time. If the King and Queen are in the mirror, they must be standing where the viewer stands — making the viewer complicit in the scene. Velázquez himself looks out from the canvas with complete self-assurance, meeting our gaze as an equal of his royal patrons. The work was a statement of artistic ambition and social elevation as much as it was a royal commission.

Key Facts & Figures

Velázquez's self-portrait: The painter appears on the left, palette in hand, with the cross of Santiago on his chest — an honour granted after the painting was complete, added later
Mirror at the back: Reflects King Philip IV and Queen Mariana — meaning the viewer stands in the position of the royal couple
Foucault's analysis: Michel Foucault opened The Order of Things (1966) with a 15-page analysis of Las Meninas as the founding image of modernity
Scale: 3.18 × 2.76 m — one of Velázquez's largest works
Copies made: Picasso created 58 reinterpretations of Las Meninas in 1957, now in the Picasso Museum in Barcelona

Common Questions About Las Meninas

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