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Las Meninas by Velázquez with the princess, her ladies, the dog and the painter at his canvas in a grand room. A detailed art printable; free PDF.
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Download PDFPrintA large room with the painter at an enormous canvas, the princess in a wide dress, her ladies-in-waiting, two court dwarfs, a resting dog, a man in the back doorway, a mirror and paintings on the walls.
Use soft grays, pinks and golds and keep the back of the room darker for depth.
Count the people in the scene and work out who each one is looking at.
The red cross on Velázquez's chest was added later, after he joined the Order of Santiago.
Las Meninas by Velázquez is one of the most studied paintings in art history and a treasure of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. Diego Velázquez, court painter to King Philip IV, finished it in 1656. It shows the young Princess Margarita, the king's daughter, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, known in Spanish as meninas.
The painting works like a puzzle. On the left, Velázquez painted himself standing at a giant canvas, but we only see its back. So what is he painting? The answer seems to lie in the mirror on the back wall, which reflects King Philip IV and Queen Mariana of Austria.
If the king and queen appear in the mirror, they must be standing exactly where we stand when we look at the painting. That is why several figures, including the painter and the princess, seem to be looking right at us. Without realizing it, the viewer becomes part of the scene.
Velázquez also included everyday palace life: two court dwarfs, a chaperone and a guard in the shadows, a court official pausing in the back doorway and a big mastiff dozing calmly on the floor. Light pouring in from the right and a room fading into darkness create an astonishing sense of real space.
