Menina. María Agustina Sarmiento. 17 cm.

Description

Decorative figure by the sculptor Angeles Anglada, representing one of the Meninas, María Agustina Sarmiento, made in reconstituted marble (marble powder + binder), finished with polychrome and ageing patinas.

Measurements: Width: 18 cm. Depth: 11 cm. Height: 17 cm.

This figure recreates one of the Meninas from Velázquez’s painting. María Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor was the daughter of the Count of Salvatierra. In the painting she is the Menina to the left of the Infanta, reclining before her and offering her a vase.

Diego Velázquez (1599 – 1660) painted Las Meninas in 1656. This painting is Velázquez’s masterpiece, subject to numerous interpretations of various kinds. The central subject is the Infanta Margarita and her ladies-in-waiting, called 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.