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  Diego Velázquez 1599-1660

• Painting Consciousness

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Diego Velázquez. Self-Portrait. 1643.
Philip IV
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on Velázquez

• Court Painter in in the court of Philip IV
  (Felipe IV).
• The Painter of the Painter
• The Painter of Truth truth about painting
• The Painter of Subjectivity truth about the
  painter
• Focus of study Relate the two points above to
  your reading of Las Meninas. Why do art critics
  attribute those qualities to him and his work?

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Questions 1

• Velázquez and The Puzzle of Double Painting
• What is being painted? And who is painting this?
• 1.1 Las Meninas is full of fascinating puzzles
  and strange twists. How "many" can you point
  out? What is wrong/strange about the
  painting?    
• 1.2 Look, closely and "deeply," at the logic of
  composition and representation its complexity
  and multiplicity. There is no one/single story in
  this painting. This painting is a very confusing,
  multiple mirror-play. Note, first, simply, that
  every one is looking at something you are
  introduced to a theatre of gazes, of
  consciousness. 
• 1.3 Then try and figure out the positions of the
  people depicted in the painting, both spatial
  (literal) and metaphorical (symbolic), especially
  the painter himself see also High Renaissance
  Painter Raphael's signature in La
  Fornaria (Italian, 1520 comparable
  to Michelangelo, David) and Ingres' imaginary
  double portrait, Raphael and La Fornarina ,
  1814. 
• 1.4 What functions do the frames/mirrors/doors in
  the painting serve? And what do they mean? 

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Questions 2

• Velázquez and The Baroque
• 2.1 What is Baroque Style? What is trompe-o'eil?
  How does it build on, and also depart from, the
  Spirit of the Renaissance? Start by
  centring your thoughts and notes
  around the humanism of the Renaissance in Baroque
  arts, the difference or division between reality
  and illusion is not clear-cut. The
  baroque complicates the senses of identity by
  conflating the two.  
• 2.2 Study some other intriguing images and
  figures from the European Renaissance and Baroque
  Periods How do they, altogether, embody the
  spirit and style of the Periods? 
• Jan van Eyck (Flemish, 1395-1441, The Betrothal
  of the Arnolfini)
• Dürer (German, 1471-1528, Portrait of a Boy with
  a long beard)
• Bronzino (Italian, 1503-72, Allegory of
  Happiness Venus, Cupide and the Time)
• Arcimboldo (Italian, 1527-1593, The Cook The
  Vegetable Gardener)
• de Ribera (Spanish, 1591-1652, Bearded Woman)
• Artemisia (Italian finally a woman artist! 1593
  - 1652/1653, Judith Beheading Holofernes
  Self-portrait as the Allegory of Painting) 

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Questions 3

• The Baroque and the Politics of Trompe-o'eil
• 3.1 Baroque style is a political statement in
  itself anti-Reformation. Why? How? Start your
  investigation by reading the entry on "baroque"
  in Web Gallery of Art.
• 3.2 Why must we study all this? What is all this
  analytic fuss about? It is your job to articulate
  and judge the worth of studying these materials
  justify your position and do so intelligently.