Department of Graphic Design, Chair

University of Petra, Amman, Jordan

Abstract

Sometimes, there is a confusion between reality and unreality. What is considered to be a real presence is an unreal presence for some people and vice versa. This phenomenon is more obvious in the visual arts. What is presented and represented? Velazquez’ painting Las Meninas is a good example to study in terms of the artist’s presence.

The painting raises many questions about reality and illusion of reality; in another word, what is real and what is unreal in his painting? What seen in the painting is an illusion of reality. The artist has an illusive unique setting to paint: a group of a princess surrounded by her maids of honor and himself. He allows his easel and paints occupy about one third of the painting. At the same time, we don’t see the picture inside the picture, we only see its back.

What does he paint? Is it the setting we see? Is it the king and the queen who are reflected in the back mirror? Is he painting himself? Where does he stand to paint his Las Meninas? Is all we see including the artist are considered to be another mirror reflection?

There are many interpretations, but they are always ours; how do we perceive the piece of art? The most valid answer relates the painting to Velazquez’ own perception of visual art. Art is the main hero of the painting which is symbolized by the artist, easel, paints, and the artist studio.

Looking at this painting evokes the same feeling of being in a virtual place with virtual people. His studio is full of people, but no one is present, all are busy with themselves, they are there and not there. This is the case in chat rooms; they are not real, only exist in our minds. You meet nicknames and hear many stories and share yours as well. A confusion of reality and unreality occurs to most people. Are you present when you are online? Is what meant by real presence the physical presence or the mental presence?

Velazquez’ Las Meninas is about what we neither know nor see. The same case is our feelings to those virtual faceless friends whom we get to know by the new technologies. Although the paper answer some of these questions, some remain ready for further investigations. For my full paper, click here

Introduction:

This paper discusses the artist's real and the unreal presence in visual art and in virtual world. We ask ourselves this question: why does an artist sometimes include himself in his art work? Is it one thing to paint himself, and another to enclose his ideas and philosophy in his art work? In the latter case, is the work of art considered to be the artist's presence? Presence is not a modern issue; it has a long history, dating back to pre-historic cave paintings which showed the early presence of human beings and animals. But presence has always been confusing because it relatively engages an individual's conception.

I choose a Baroque painting, in which the artist has both physical and artistic presence. It is Velazquez' Las Meninas, The Maids of Honor, 1656. http://www.spanisharts.com/prado/velazquez/meninas.htm

I will relate this painting to any chat room in the virtual world, in terms of reality and unreality.

Diego Velazquez (1599-1660):

Velazquez, one of the world's greatest artists, is the court painter of Philip IV, king of Spain (1605-65). His precision observation and technique make his portraits perceptive and unflattering. He has created an enormous amount of masterpieces of historical, religious and mythological subjects. Many art historians state that his later achievements make him a father of modern painting.

Las Meninas opens the door to a lot of arguments concerning space, time, illusion, reality and unreality. It is a remarkable illusion of reality which critics claim has never been surpassed. The painting will be analyzed for the sake of the artist's presence and illusion of reality.

The Maids of Honor (Las Meninas), 1656:

This painting is about a group of people: a princess and four girls, a man and a woman, a man in the background, a painter with his brushes before a large canvas, a dog and a shadow of two people in a mirror on the back wall of a room. Velazquez chooses to present a representation of himself and of fine arts. He occupies a larger space than the princess. His three-quartered pose is more appealing to the viewer than hers. The princess -the Infanta Dona Margarita, her two maids and the two female dwarfs look like wax toys, statues, in contrast with his fully alive appearance. He and the back of his long inclined easel are pulling the spectator inward. His presence takes over the attention and leads to many questions such as: where does he stand to paint this painting? The very possible answer is that all the figures in the painting including himself and his easel are mirror reflections. Some painters use the mirror to extend the space in front of the painting. This "… allows for the inclusion of the viewer into the narrative of the picture" (Stengel). When spectators become part of the art work, their presence is another representation. By this involvement, Velazquez eliminates the barriers between reality and unreality. "Some painters seemed to believe that paintings were in direct competition with mirrors. They saw paintings as (ideally) exact imitations of the visual world, just as mirrors were faithful reflections of it" (Andreae). The mirror shows a reflection of two figures, almost shadows, the queen and the king who are "visiting the artist's studio as Alexander the Great visited the studio of Apelles in the ancient times" (Gardner 735). Where do they stand? If they were standing on the same ground, they would be reflected like all other figures we see in the painting. Therefore, the framed mirror is another illusion to make the viewer puzzled about reality and unreality. And, there is a man standing in the background opening the door. Does the opened doorway suggest a space expansion and a source of light?

The use of frontal light in a dark room theatrically helps to perceive the narration as performed on a stage. Velasquez develops a special skill in his use of lights and shades, a technique which is also seen in Leonardo's and Rembrandt's works. Light and shadow adds volume to each form; hence, we perceive the figures as three-dimension forms.

The painting encourages many questions to be asked. Is it a painting about the painter himself, or the princess and her maids? If he was painting the princess, he would have chosen a different setting to fit her Royal presence and luxurious dress. But he chooses his dark studio full of paintings for the background, not any Royal hall. This shows a lot of emphasis on fine arts and concern about the artist's honor and dignity. He brings the princess and her maids to his studio instead of going to them. Velazquez is the primary character, not she. Even if he excludes himself from the crowd, he would still be symbolically present because of the domination of his angled easel.

Although the painting presents a group of people, everybody seems alone in the room. "No one seems too prominent, each is easily related to the other, and all breathe the same air" (Clark). The princess is happily proud of the way she looks, the maids are around to persuade her to pose for the painter. While it seems that the lazy, unhappy dog's role is to satisfy the princess; complete the aristocratic scene; add some variety to human images; and solve a space problem for the painter, Velazquez depicts himself, rightfully, as a medieval warrior. His own assumption is "…identifying himself … as a knight of the Order of Santiago …"(Stengel).

The whole story could be made up. It is an unreal setting; therefore, there is neither a princess nor a mirror. Whether there are people in his studio or none, there are two facts. On one hand, there is a real painting called The Maids of Honor in Prado Museum, Madrid and a real painter called Velazquez. On the other hand, there is an unreal painting and an unreal artist inside The Maids of Honor. The main point here is not The Maids of Honor as a painting, but the painting inside, a picture inside a picture, the huge leaning easel and the back of which is what we see. What is the painting inside about? The artist didn't inform us. Is it about Velazquez himself or the figures we all see? If we study the proportion of the wooden easel, we will find that it is a half of a vertical rectangle which fits a self-portrait, not the horizontal crowd scene.

Clark thinks that Las Meninas has never been painted; he argues that "it seems rather absurd to begin by considering a great picture as a record of something that really happened". He adds that the scene we see is a preparation for something that has never been done, making it more agreeable that Velazquez is painting himself on the unseen canvas. "The picture seems more like a portrait of Velazquez" (Da Costa, 458). Stratton-Pruitt also states that the artist is portraying himself (2003). He wanted to present himself as a friend of the Royal family, not a common court artist. His self-representation is not only a mirror-reflection, but also an unreal representation.

Is Velazquez' Las Meninas a Virtual Room ?

Looking at Velazquez' painting recalls the same feeling we have when we project ourselves into chat rooms for illusive shelter. "The distinction between reality and unreality is increasingly blurred. It is becoming more and more difficult to draw a sharp distinction between the real and the unreal" (Lochhead). In the unreal world, we encounter similar characters: a princess-like figure, an arrogant hero, a clown, an observer, etc... Why do some of us flee to unreality? Many factors make us feel unsatisfied with our real world. The rapid tempo of life, the slow decadence of moral standard, the political corruption, the aggressive wars everywhere and the burden of materialistic needs are some factors negatively influencing our daily performance. The work we do is not enough and the love we give and take, as well, is not what we need. Our dreams and ambitions too are not accomplished. Oftentimes, we are mostly absent, busy with our dreams, imaginations, sorrows and frustrations. Our presence in reality is no longer available. We are more present and comfortable with unreality because we feel free to say what we want. This situation is called "anarchy" in which no one enforces his will (Lochhead). This statement recalls Clark's about the painting in which no one seems prominent.

It is a sort of contradiction to feel unreal in reality and real in unreality. In the unreal world, we don't have to wear our masks to satisfy people. On the contrary, some are behind masks to hide their real characters when they move to the unreal world; they are transformed and feel happy about their fake personalities. These people choose masks while they have the chance to take them off and relax.

We occasionally reject the stable reality we live in for the favor of the unknown, and enjoy chatting with those faceless friends whether they cheer us up or hurt us. These rooms are illusions, we know that; they only exist in our minds. The real problem here is losing the reality itself, not the sense of reality which is already lost, living in isolation with our infatuation. The more presence we have in unreality, the less presence and contact we have with reality. We live the unreality because we want to have presence; we talk, express ourselves with others and we are heard. More so, we all need time and space to live our imaginations that we can't attain in reality. Is our presence real, in terms of space and time or are we transformed into a few typed words mixed with feelings, wishes, tears, laughs, regrets and grief?

Who is real and who is unreal? Are unreality and illusion one thing? What is said about Velazquez' painting –in terms of its reality and unreality- is applied in virtual rooms too. There are also two facts: one is that there are real people all over the world live an unsatisfactory life for reasons already mentioned. They try to be connected together through one of the modern technologies of our age to express themselves. The other fact is that these people are transformed into nicknames to live a few hours as unreal people and forget their reality. In the painting, we have a real painting and a real artist, and inside, there are an unreal painting and an unreal artist. We accept all written interpretations for how do we read and perceive The Maids of Honor, which may not what is in Velazquez' mind at all, but ours. In like manner, we also accept that some people are using the written communication, transforming themselves into a few words and going online for their own reasons.

Bibliography:

Andreae, Christopher. "Mirror, Mirror, in the Painting", February 22, 1999, http://search.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/02/22/p18s1.htm.

Clark, Kenneth. "Looking at Pictures: Velazquez: Las Meninas ", ed. Mark Harden,http://www.artchive.com/meninas.htm

Da Costa, Felix. The Antiquity of the Art of Painting by Felix da Costa. George Kubler, Ed., Yale: Yale UP, 1967.

Denys,Sutton. Diego Velasquez. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967.

Gardner, Helen. Art Through the Ages. Ed. Horta de la Croix; Richard G. tansey, San Diego, New: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 8^th ed., 1986.

Goldberg, Benjamin. The Mirror and Man, Charlottesville: U of Vigrinia P, 1985.

Herbert, James D. Illusion of the Real, Bradford Collins, ed., Princeton: Princeton U P, 1996, 216.

Janson, H.W. and Anthony F. Janson, History of Art, Fifth Ed, Volume II. New York: Prentice and Abrams, 1997, 511.

Lochhead, David. "Living in Virtual Un/Reality", May 1995. http://www.religion-research.org/irtc/reality.htm

Schmitter, Amy H. "Picturing Power: Representation and Las Meninas", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 54. no. 3. (Summer, 1996), 262.

Stengel, Barbara M. "Views In The Looking Glass: The Mirrors In The Arnolfini Portrait, Las Meninas, and A Bar At The Folies-Bergere", http://www.csuchico.edu/art/contrapposto/contrapposto99/pages/essays/mcmanus1b/stengelmanet.html.

Dr. Inas Alkholy