Category: Las Meninas

A Charming Gift for His King: ‘Las Meninas’

A child’s soft giggle echoes down the palace hall. Heavy skirts rustle. A lady-in-waiting enters and holds the door of the Cuarto del Principe (“Prince’s Room”) in the Alcázar Palace in Madrid, Spain. In comes a 5-year-old child, royal to be sure, to the spacious studio of the court’s chief painter, the eminent Diego Velázquez…


A Painting to Remember: ‘Las Meninas’

Three memories I have of the first time I visited Madrid: the relentless elegance of the women in the fashionable areas, the sumptuous gazpacho at the Ritz Madrid, and seeing “Las Meninas” in the Prado. Ask an artist or a philosopher today to name the greatest painting in the world and the chances are they…