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Video opens with a shot of someone entering the CAVE to the Meninas space with the curtains closed
to establish the relationship of the viewer to the piece.
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| The credits are presented before the curtain rises
on our exploration of the Velazquez painting, Las Meninas.
Maybe at this point we could cut in our opening credits for the
video with the "You are about the embark..." narration over it.
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| All is silence and emptiness. Into the room of Las Meninas
walks a solitary figure. It is the painter, Diego Velazquez. |
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Video of a visitor interacting with the painting with the wand/brush. Person 'paints'
in the characters.
Narration would be something along the lines of what is said in our piece altho I can't remember
exactly what it is right now.
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We know very little about his painting.
In the inventory of the Madrid Royal Alcazar begun by Mazo in
1666 at the Death of Philip the fourth and six years after the
death of Velazquez, Mazo described a large painting "Portraying
the infanta margarita with her ladies in waiting, and a female
dwarf by the hand of Velazquez."
Palomino tells us that this masterpiece was finished
in 1656, and that while Velazques was painting it, the royal family
often came to watch him work. Forty years later, a new court painter,
Luca Gordana, proclaimed that it holds the 'theology of painting.'
As we contemplate this work, the soothing tones of a clavier
piece written by Bach accompany us through this scene.
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The symbolization of virtues which are tied to the
throne and that of the devotion and service it inspires are suggested
by the positions of the figures which form a circle. The symbolic
circle interprets the fatal duality of negative and positive ruling
over human destiny. Behind each benediction, a curse. Behind each
danger, a fortune.
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Let us not forget the astrological beliefs of Velazquez,
in a court and a society more superstitious than fanatical.
After Velazquez' death, five telescopes were found
in his chamber, and we are told he had access to a tower for observing
the heavens. The question remains ... is there a horoscope hidden
in 'Las Meninas'?
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