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Baroque · 1656
Diego Velázquez 1599–1660
Museo del Prado · Madrid
The princess and her maids — and Velázquez himself at his easel, watching us as much as we watch them. Painting about painting.
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The world it was painted in, the life of the painter, and a close reading of the details. This film is free in Hear Art.
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Chapter 1 of 7
Step into the most analysed painting in the Western world. Madrid, sixteen fifty-six. Diego Velázquez — court painter to King Philip the Fourth, the most powerful artist in Spain — does something audacious.
He paints not a royal portrait, but the room around one. For thirty years he had worked these palace halls; here, at the height of his powers, he paints himself, painting. So — who is he looking at?
Where to see it
Madrid
Room 12 · Level 1
The Hear Art 3D museum guide walks you to it.
Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
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