Maria Torroba. Christmas show at London’s Stephanie Hoppen Gallery.Walton Street, SW3.

Published November 30, 2015

Maria Torroba
Chelsea Mariana, 2015
Mixed Media on Canvas
180 x 120 cm (diptych)

Las Meninas is one of the most profound and enigmatic paintings in the world. You are the king. You stand patiently posing for your portrait, while the royal painter looks sombrely back at you from behind his canvas. This is the position into which Velázquez puts the viewer of Las Meninas. It's a big and paradoxical picture, a portrait not of the king and queen – who are only reflected in the painting in a bright mirror at the back of a high, deep room – but of the anxious court mirrored in their – our – eyes. Velázquez shows us the world a monarch sees. The "meninas" are identically-dressed maids who fuss over the Infanta Margaret Theresa, an expensively dressed little girl who even as she plays in front of her royal parents appears on her mettle, under scrutiny. She looks nervously at them while two court dwarfs and a dog are on hand to provide entertainment. One dwarf kicks the dog. It's a grave, chilly little world. No one (except the dog-kicker) seems relaxed and no one looks emotionally close to the monarchs – to us, who stand where they stand. The scene is intensely theatrical, everyone in their costumes and everyone on best behaviour. But at a door in the background a man is coming with news from Spain's vast and, when Velázquez was at work, decaying empire. Presumably Philip IV of Spain was happy with this ingenious conceptual portrait. As painter to the king, Velázquez was showered with honours. But this painting menaces the fabric of reality and the illusion of identity with its consummate game of mirrors. Do kings and queens exist only in the eyes of others? And if that is true of monarchs then who on earth are you and I, transported uneasily by Velázquez into the skin of royalty, attended by a painter who looks at us, polite, exact, and utterly ruthless in his craft? This painting is a disenchanted glass. Another Las Meninas is a shattering thought.

Maria Torroba’s picture reminds us of Diego Velasquez meisterwerk Las Meninas. Las Meninas is one of the most profound and enigmatic paintings in the world.

The “meninas” are identically-dressed maids who fuss over the Infanta Margaret Theresa, daughter of Philip IV of Spain. As painter to the king, Velázquez was showered with honours. But this painting menaces the fabric of reality and the illusion of identity with its consummate game of mirrors. As we see reflected in the mirror the King & Queen. Do kings and queens exist only in the eyes of others? And if that is true of monarchs then who on earth are you and I, transported uneasily by Velázquez into the skin of royalty, attended by a painter who looks at us, polite, exact, and utterly ruthless in his craft? As a courtier arrives with news from the crumbling Spanish empire.
This painting is a disenchanted glass.

Las-MeninasDIEGOVELASQUEZ.

Las Meninas by Diego Velasquez is one of the most profound and enigmatic paintings in the world.

Maria Torroba
Chelsea Mariana, 2015
Mixed Media on Canvas
180 x 120 cm (diptych) Inspired by the great portraits of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, Maria creates fabulous and original new works of oil and collage, incorporating Spanish and Belgian linens, antique lace embroidered by her grandmother, ribbons, hessian and even shells collected on her travels. These portraits have been shown in several exhibitions and are now held in private collections in Mexico, Argentina, London and Shanghai.

Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress is an oil on canvas portrait of Margaret Theresa of Spain by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, though his identification as its author is not considered secure. It is now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. It was generally considered to be the last work in his oeuvre, with the dress by Velázquez himself and the head (left unfinished on Velázquez's death) and the bottom of the curtains completed by his pupil Juan Bautista del Mazo.[1] However, recent studies by experts suggest it may be entirely by Mazo. The Prado Museum currently assigns the work to Mazo. Its subject was the royal most frequently portrayed by Velázquez, also appearing in his Las Meninas and Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress. In the final years of his life he spent long periods producing portraits of her to send to the Austrian court for political reasons and in response to certain matrimonial arrangements made between the two courts. Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress is still in Vienna as are two 1652-53 portraits of her aged one or two in a silver and pink dress. A replica of the latter of the two, with variations, is in the Liria Palace in Madrid, though this is attributed to another painter. Contents [hide] 1History 2 Notes 3 Bibliography 4 External links

Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress is an oil on canvas portrait of Margaret Theresa of Spain , thought to be by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, though his identification as its author is no longer considered secure. This famous painting is now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Recent studies by experts suggest it may be entirely by Juan Bautista del Mazo. The Prado Museum currently assigns the work to Mazo.
Its subject was the Royal most frequently portrayed by Velázquez, also appearing in his Las Meninas and Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress. In the final years of his life he spent long periods producing portraits of her to send to the Austrian court for political reasons and in response to certain matrimonial arrangements made between the two courts. Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress is still in Vienna as are two 1652-53 portraits of her aged one or two in a silver and pink dress. A replica of the latter of the two, with variations, is in the Liria Palace in Madrid, though this is attributed to another painter.

Pablo Picasso. Meninas inspired picture in the Picasso Barcelona museum.

meninasmanolovaldes

From etchings by Manolo Vades.

With an essay Dancing Notes on Las Meninas,

written by Josep Palau i Fabre.