Things I Like: Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez

I remember many an afternoon on childhood visits to South Georgia sitting by my grandmother on her bed as she played solitaire. Above her bed hung a copy of the painting Las Meninas by Spanish painter Diego Velázquez.

My grandmother told me that the little princess in the painting was me, that the ladies waiting on her were my aunts, and that she herself was represented by the dwarf on the right-hand side. I had no trouble envisioning myself as royalty and I had blonde hair, so her claim seemed quite reasonable to me. I'm not sure at what point I figured out that I was not Velázquez's subject, but by that time I was so enamored of the painting, that it was of little consequence.

In 2002 Robert and I were to depart from Barcelona after a Mediterranean cruise. We had several choices of cities for our connecting flight back to the States, and I selected Madrid so that I could have the opportunity to see Las Meninas in person.

In Madrid we stayed at the Hotel Palace, a fabulously elegant hotel directly across the square from the Museo del Prado where Las Meninas, is housed.


Here I am outside the Palace, looking nowhere near as effortlessly chic as the European woman behind me

Just off the hotel's lobby is a restaurant/bar area under a spectacular stained glass cupola.




This picture from the hotel web site gives a better idea of the scale of the dome - magnificent!

The morning after arriving in Madrid, Robert and I were at the Prado when its doors opened.



As the masterpiece of the Prado, Las Meninas is prominently displayed in a room of Velázquez's works. I was unprepared for how large the painting was! (I suppose I envisioned it in the much smaller version I had seen at my grandparents' house.)



I don't think photographs were allowed in the Prado because I did not get a picture showing its scale (found the one above on the Internet) and the requisite picture of me with the object of my pilgrimage (below) is really bad and must have been hurriedly and illicitly taken or I surely would have insisted that Robert retake it



Between its size and its grandeur, Las Meninas was breathtaking and well worth the pilgrimage to see in person.

An added bonus was the opportunity to acquire a copy of the painting for my own home.