Few paintings manage to look back at their viewers more enigmatically than “Las Meninas” (1656). With each passing century, Diego Velázquez’s masterpiece has prompted new debate and interpretation concerning every level of its creation. Why did Velázquez (1599–1660), Spain’s greatest portraitist at that time, include his audience as a subject painted? Why did he paint himself with the Infanta Margarita and her entourage looking out at the viewer? And why, how, when, and by whom was the bright red emblem of the Order of Santiago painted onto Velázquez’s coat?
These mysteries remain largely unsolved, but a common element might align their explanations. Velázquez was driven in every aspect of his personal and professional life by a calling to elevate and dignify everything and everyone he painted. At a time when the Madrid court’s austerity inclined all painters to focus on religious subjects, Velázquez’s portraits ennobled common workers, court dwarves, and slaves with such sincere precision that they were adored by even the aristocracy.
