The restaurant's glass exterior creates a display-case effect that heightens the sense that the subjects (three customers and a counterman) are alone together. Its brightly lit interior-the only source of illumination for the scene-floods the sidewalk and the surrounding buildings, which are otherwise dark. In other words, are the subjects of Las Meninas (all of whom are fixing their gaze outside of the frame), looking at us, or looking at themselves?Īn iconic depiction of urban isolation, Nighthawks depicts a quarter of characters at night inside a greasy spoon with an expansive wraparound window that almost takes up the entire facade of the diner.
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Meanwhile, Velázquez’s full length rendering of himself at his easel begs the question of whether he’s looking in a mirror to paint the picture. Immediately this suggests that the royal couple is on our side of the picture plane, raising the question of where we are in relationship to them.
It’s the visual art equivalent of breaking the fourth wall-or in this case, the studio’s far wall on which there hangs a mirror reflecting the faces of the Spanish King and Queen.
Las Meninas is also a treatise on the nature of seeing, as well as a riddle confounding viewers about what exactly they’re looking at. A painting of a painting within a painting, Velázquez masterpiece consists of different themes rolled into one: A portrait of Spain’s royal family and retinue in Velázquez’s studio a self-portrait an almost art-for-art’s-sake display of bravura brush work and an interior scene, offering glimpses into Velázquez’s working life.
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