Menina. Infanta Margarita. 16 cm.

Description

Decorative figure by the sculptor Angeles Anglada, representing the Infanta Margarita, in reconstituted marble (marble powder + binder), finished with polychromes and age patinas.

Measurements:

Width: 10 cm. Depth: 8 cm. Height: 16 cm.

This figure recreates the central character in Velázquez‘s painting. The Infanta Margarita was the daughter of King Philip IV and Mariana of Austria. In the painting she appears surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, known as the Meninas.

Diego Velázquez (1599 – 1660) painted Las Meninas in 1656. This painting is Velázquez’s masterpiece, subject to numerous interpretations of various kinds. The central theme is the Infanta Margarita and her Meninas, Isabel de Velasco and María Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor, together with the dwarfs Mari Bárbola and Nicolasito Pertusato and a mastiff dog. The painter portrays himself painting a large canvas on the left of the picture. Behind the Meninas is their caretaker, Marcela de Ulloa, dressed as a nun (or widow), conversing with an unidentified figure, a guardadamas. In the background, at the open door of the staircase, is José Nieto Velázquez, the queen’s lodger. A painting or mirror in the background shows Philip IV and Mariana of Austria. If we follow the interpretation of the mirror, Velázquez would have painted a self-portrait of himself while he was painting a portrait of the two monarchs.