Las Meninas

From first glance of the Las Meninas painting, my eyes go to the center, down front, where a princess is being offered a drink and gives off an air of not being interested. Not too near to her, almost at the margin of the picture, a woman dwarf, and a boy bothers a tired dog, which disregards the torments. There is a woman in middle ground talks to a man who seems to be ignoring her while instead he looks directly at the viewer. Further in the back, a courtier in all black prepares to leave; his parting gift being a backward glance which was an unsuccessful attempt to let a little light in by the door. He leaves a room full of embodiments that are almost invisible for lack of lighting because of the shuttered windows and the ceiling lights
The overhead light fixtures mark the midpoint of the ceiling, and the focal point of the wall is assumed by the mirror which represents the image of royalty. That determines three focal points, not four: one - the princess indicates the center of the canvas as an actual object; two - the courier on the stair glances at the focal point of the viewpoint which represents the perspectival geometry; and three - the mirror identifies the midline of the room as the depicted chamber. The three kinds of vantages are deliberately scattered (Steinberg, 1981). The layout is ostensibly straightforward with distinct verticals and horizontals creating a series of coinciding pyramids, a conventional Renaissance device. The first pyramid consists of the dog, Princess, the reflection of the King and Queen in the mirror, and the Princess’ attendant on the left. The next pyramid is composed of the dwarfs, the second attendant who curtseys, the queen's servant in the doorway, and again the Princess. The final pyramid is made up of the waiting attendant to the Princess on the left, Velazquez himself as the artist with brush in hand, and the Princess (TotallyHistory.com, 2012). The prime focus of this painting is the blond Princess Marguerita which is shown first by her pivotal
It persists for this self, dignified by association, not just to complete the last triangle that brings the group to twelve, above all, to see the illusion loop finished. As the royal ubiquity is regarded from within the picture to inspire a painting, so the beholder sees the deterred painting bring about its mirror image, which in turn assures the royal pair's actual presence. The painter gives the actual, the reflected, and the depicted as three interdependent states, three modalities of the visible that cause and succeed one another in a ceaseless round. Reality, illusion, and replication by art transmit in endless recirculation (Steinberg, 1981). This will not work unless the observer agrees to participate. Affirm the requisition, and the picture diminishes the real world and the metaphorical to psychic correlation, like the two pans of a scale, each acted on by the other. What one faces in Las Meninas is not simply an enclosed object, a beautiful exterior, an illusory space, a simulated event-though the painting is all of these. The picture acts in the way of a meaningful presence. It creates an animosity; as in any living animosity, any fundamental exchange, the work of art becomes the surrogate pole in a situation of complementary self-recognition. If the picture were vocal instead of reflecting, it would