The pocketbook you should take to the Prado..
With this post I intend to begin sharing the beautiful relationship I have with Velázquez' "Las Meninas". Above many other portraits that turned into artmedia iconic images ( Mona Lisa's infinite variations to begin with, or Warhol's PopArt posters of Marylin Monroe, or the "Che" Jesus-like visage in T-Shirts, to name but a few) the painting The Maids of Honor painted by Uncle Diego has all that is needed to spend a few years, quietly, in intercourse with.
Why so many artists felt like engaging themselves in dialogue with Las Meninas? Maybe because it keeps rewarding them with answers that are important for their own anguished stares at Art's vertigo-inducing precipice.
I've been collecting variations on the theme of "Las Meninas", a most innocent and pleasurable activity, and highly bloggable as well ( as in any love affair, sometimes you are bored and you feel like looking around. Other times you need to see the face of your mistress reflected on another woman's traits to remember just how good the original is. There are times when you think a new fresh angle is called for and that without some novelty the aura surrounding that beloved image will be irretrievably lost.) But every now and then I have to walk down the Paseo del Prado and aim to the Museo, where, like a Qeops pyramid of Western Art, lies the ultimate painting-enigma.
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