Las Meninas and Allegory of Painting - Essay Example

April 19, Las Meninas and Allegory of Painting Baroque art is influenced by religion because it reflects the religious tensions between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. It should be noted that in the early fifteenth century, the Catholic Church embarked on a program known as Counter Reformation as an answer to Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church used art to influence its audience. However, this type of style penetrated the Protestant artists too. Another characteristic is the use of chiaroscuro which is a technique involving a play of light and shadow of usually high contrasts.

Realism as an art technique is also used. Everyday life is also depicted in Baroque art. These two paintings are clearly Baroque art pieces. Las Meninas was made on 1656 and The Allegory of Painting was made on 1666 to 1668. Their subjects are slices of life, one in the castle and one in a non-specific room. Both paintings use light and shadow very well, providing depth and dimension to both paintings. Both evoke the same feelings of the viewer being in the room with the subjects, as the paintings are all open.

However, they are also indifferent at the same time. They both have the element of mystery. They also feature the painter character in the painting. In Las Meninas, it is clearly identified that that character was Velazquez but in The Allegory of Painting, the painter is turned back, so positive identification of the subject is impossible. Both paintings tackle everyday life. In Las Meninas, it features the scene in the castle. According to various literature, it is in a room of the palace of King Philip IV of Spain.

There are many characters in it, like the young Princess Infanta Margarita Teresa together with her maids of honor, chaperone, bodyguard and two dwarfs. However, there is the mirror element at the back wall of the room reflecting the images of the King and Queen of Spain. That implies that the painter is painting the King and Queen, and that the King and Queen are in the place of the viewer, out of the painted space. This also implies that the “subject” of the painting, the Princess, is just looking at a regular scene in the palace where her parents are being painted.

Velazquez accurately painted the room with its dimensions and other details and this may be seen as a metaphor that painting is more than art, it is actually a chronicle that a scene like this occurred in the palace, thus elevating the art of painting. Like Las Meninas, The Allegory of Painting is also a piece that plays largely with light, although Las Meninas’ colors and depth are starker. There are only two characters in the painting, and the other character is also a painter too. However, unlike in Las Meninas, we know what the painter is painting.

The element of mystery is not on the subject of the painting (like in Las Meninas) but on the painter itself. The subject here isn’t the royal family but Clio, the Muse of History. This is shown by the trumpet, laurel leaves and a book possibly by Herodotus or Thucydides. There is also a chandelier with the symbols of the former rulers of Holland, which happened to be Catholic. There are no lighted candles though, implying a repression or perhaps a defeat in Catholicism in a largely Protestant Netherlands.

Vermeer was a devout Catholic. Although both paintings employed the same style as putting the painters in the painting, and employing chiaroscuro and realism, their messages are different. Las Meninas advocates on the art of painting by painting for his patron with almost a journalistic notion by keeping what he is painting while the The Art of Painting’s message is more religious in nature than promoting the art of painting, and unlike Las Meninas, he keeps the identity of the painter and not the subject.

Both represent reality but at the same time, they deliver the message that reality cannot be conveyed efficiently. The subject of the painting in Las Meninas was presented to the viewer through the mirror image and in The Allegory of Painting, the message is conveyed through symbols, which is totally up to the viewer to interpret. Thus, implying that reality can be subjective too. References: Jones, Jonathan. Las Meninas, Diego Velazquez (1656-7). The Guardian UK. 23 August 2003. Web. 22 July 2011.

Honour, Hugh and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London: Macmillan, 1982. Print. Montias, J.M. Vermeer and his Milieu: A Web of Social History. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1989. Print.