alpers, interpretation withour representation

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Interpretation without Representation, or, the Viewing of Las Meninas Author(s): Svetlana Alpers Reviewed work(s): Source: Representations, No. 1 (Feb., 1983), pp. 30-42 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3043758 . Accessed: 20/09/2012 03:40 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to  Representations. http://www.jstor.org

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Interpretation without Representation, or, the Viewing of Las MeninasAuthor(s): Svetlana AlpersReviewed work(s):Source: Representations, No. 1 (Feb., 1983), pp. 30-42Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3043758 .

Accessed: 20/09/2012 03:40

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of 

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

 Representations.

http://www.jstor.org

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SVETLANA ALPERS

InterpretationwithoutRepresentation,or,The Viewing ofLas Meninas*

ALONG WITH VERMEER'S Art of Paintingand Courbet's tudio,Velazquez'sLas Meninas fig.1) is surely ne of thegreatest epresentationsfpictorial epresentationnall of Westernainting.Whyhasthiswork luded ull

andsatisfactoryiscussiony rthistorians? hy hould t be that hemajor tudy,the most erious nd sustained ieceofwritingn thiswork n our time,s byMichelFoucault?'There s, I shallargue, structuralxplanationuilt nto heinterpretiveroceduresfthedisciplinetself hathas made pictureuch s LasMeninasiterallynthinkablenderhe ubric f rthistory.eforeonsideringhework,s I proposeodo, nrepresentationalerms,etus consider hy his houldbeso.

Historically,e cantrace wo ines f rgumentboutLas Meninas: hefirst,most legantlyncapsulatednTheophileGautier's Ou1 stdonc e tableau?"has

beenconcerned ith heextraordinarilyeal presencefthepaintedworld.2 heframeppears o ntersectroomwhose eiling,loor,ndwindow ays xtend,o tis suggested,o include heviewer. he light ndshadow-filledpace s notonlyintendedor heviewer's yes-as in the ase of tsmuch maller redecessorungat theSpanish ourt, anEyck'sArnolfini edding. iven hegreat ize of thecanvas,t s ntendedlso forhe iewer'sody. he sizeof he iguress a matchorourown.Thisappealat once oeye ndtobodys a remarkableictorial erfor-mancewhich ontradictorilyresentsowerfuluman iguresymeans f llusion-arysurfaces.n thenineteenthenturyt was a commonplaceor ravellerso

Madrid orefero t nwhatwecancallphotographicerms.ontinuingtraditionstartedn theeighteenthenturybout uchworks s Vermeer's iew fDelft,twascomparedonature een na camera bscura,ndStirling-Maxwell,n earlywriter,oted hat asMeninas nticipatedaguerre. hepictorialualityfpres-ence s sustainedn theapparentlyasualdeportmentf thefigureshat s dis-tinguished,s so oftenntheworks fVelazquez, y a particulareature:hefactthatweare ooked tby hose twhomwe are ooking. o twentiethenturyyes tleast, hisgivestthe ppearance f snapshoteing aken. n theforeground,helittle rincessurnsousfromer ntourage,s does neofhermaids, nda dwarf,and of ourse elazquezhimselfhohasstepped ackfrom iscanvas or his erypurpose.

REPRESENTATIONS 1:1 * February1983 ? THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 31

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Fig. 1. Diego VelAzquez.Las Meninas, 1656. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

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The gaze out ofthe canvas s a consistenteaturenVelazquez'sworks. n theirseparateportraits,oyaltynd dwarf like meetour eyes,but most stoundingretheminor iguresnthe arger cenes: wo ofthepeasants elebrating acchus n anearlywork fig.2), for xample, rthe memorableoldier othe eft nd theofficerstothe right f TheSurrenderfBreda,orthewoman ituated t themargin etween

the twospacesof TheSpinners. refer o thisphenomenons a gaze,todistinguishit from glance. It does not initiate r attend o someoccurrence;mpty f ex-pression,t snot, nshort, arrativennature.The gaze,rather, ignalsfromwithinthepicture hat heviewer utside hepictures seen and inturn tacknowledgeshestateofbeing een.Thoughnot nvented or heoccasion f Las Meninas,thedeviceis heightened erebecause t s thematizedy the ituation,rpossibly he ituationsat hand.

Justwhatthe situation s-hence whatthesubject f the work s-has beentheconcern f the second ine ofargument boutLas Meninas. The problems notoneof identification-anearly commentatordentified ach participant n the scene

(even ncluding hefigure ausing nthe ight fthedistant oorwaywhose roleof

Fig. 2. Diego Vela'zquez.Los Borrachos, 628-29. Museo del Prado,Madrid.

32 REPRESENTATIONS

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_]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~32: R EPRESNTAION

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marshal n thequeen's entourage ignificantlyatchesVelazquez's role n service othe king).However thepresence ftheking ndqueenmarked ytheir eflectionnthe prominentmirror t the center f the farwall, and the arge picture eenfromthe back on itsstretcher, hich ntrudes t the eft, aiseproblems.Whereare the

kingand queen or what is the source oftheirreflections,nd what is thesubjectbeing paintedon the unseencanvas? The impulse n recent tudieshas been to an-swerthesequestions y attemptingosupply heplot-a little laylet s onescholarcalls it-of which hispictures a scene.3 he littlenfanta, othis ccountgoes,hasdropped n to see Velazquez at work, topsto ask hermaidof honorfor drink fwaterand looksup whensurprised ytheunexpected ntrance f herparents, hekingand queen.

It is characteristicfart historical ractice hat t s thequestion fplotto whichthe notion fthemeaning fthework s appended, ather hanto thequestion fthenatureofthe pictorial epresentation.hough scholarsdiffer bout thespecifics ftheplot-are theroyalpair posingfor heir ortraits hen theprincess rrives, r isitrather heprincess ndherretinuewhopose as king nd queen arrive?-they reagreed that t is thepresence fthe king nd queen withthe painter hat s emplot-ted here.4And it is on this basis that the meaning f Las Meninas is today nter-preted s a claimfor henobility fpainting s a liberalart and as a personal laimfornobility n thepartofVelazquez himself. n short, as Meninas is nowunder-stood s a visual statement f thesocialrank desiredby the painter.

To backup thispoint, etaileddocumentationas been collectedo show that llSpanish paintersworkedunderfinancial nd social pressures ue to their ow pro-fessional tatusas craftsmen,nd thatsome struggled o bring bout change.5 Ofcourseanypictorialperformancef the brilliance nd accomplishmentfLas Me-ninasmight e said tomakehighclaimsfor rt,butthenature fVelazquez's claimsare problematicn the sense that he does not distinguish heliberal aspect of artfromtscraft. rom his self-consciousvowal of paint as boththecreator f llusionand as materialpigment n his early Waterseller,o his devotedforegroundingfwomenpreparing hreadfortheweavingoftapestries n the workknownas The

Spinners,Velazquez embraced hevery raftsmanshiphat thismodernnterpreta-tionwould havehimreject. n Las Meninas, the casual yet trikinguxtapositionfVelazquez's palettewiththe adjacent head of a maid ofhonor-beribbonedheadmatched o palette n both brushstroke nd hue-makes the claimforcraft ncemore.

In order oreduceLas Meninas to ts currentmeaning wo moves re necessary:first, gainst theevidence f the picture t is argued that artist nd king are repre-sented ogethernd their roximitys seen as thecentral eature fthework; econd,arthistorianseparatewhat they laim to be the seventeenthenturymeaning f the

workfromtsappearance,which s put n its place as merely he concern f modernviewers.6

It is this nsistence n the separation f questions f meaning rom uestions f

InterpretationithoutRepresentation,r,The Viewingof Las Meninas 33

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Fig. 3. Carel Fabritius.The Sentry,c. 1648. StaatlichesMu-seum,Schwerin.

representationhatmakesLas Meninas unthinkable ithin heestablished ubric farthistory. he problems endemic o thefield.Before uggesting hythis houldbe so, let megiveone furtherxample:therecent iscoveryfwhat shouldperhapsbe calledpaintingswithoutmeaning. am notreferringo theresponse o a dada-istmaneuver, utrather o theattemptednterpretationf"normal"Dutchpaintingssuch as Fabritius'shaunting entryfig.3). The soldier eated withhis expectantdogbeneath n improbable olumn,oadinghisgunundertheaspectofsleep,and

assimilated oa complex ssemblage ftruncated ronlypartly isible tructuresspuzzling,butsurelynotmeaningless.ince,however, esearch as turned p notextormoralmessagewhich nformshepainting, scholarhas feltustifiednconclud-ingthatwhat we have before s is ust realism.7 here is a clearandpresent angerfor rthistorianswho fail to find hekindsofmessages-be theymoral, ocial,orprofessional-currentlyonsidered o be themeanings fworksbyartists uchasVelazquez,Vermeer,rBruegel.The danger s that heseworks lso willhave tobeadmitted obe meaningless.What is missings a notion frepresentationra con-cernwith what t is topicture omething. nd it is thereforeotsurprisinghat nrecent imes tis students ftextswhohavemost uccessfullyurned heir ttentiontotheworks fartists uch as these-artistswhoseworks re self-consciousnd richin thoserepresentationaloncernsowhich iterarytudieshave beenmore ttuned.

Whyshould rthistory indtself nthisfix?The answer ies,paradoxically,na greatstrengthf thedisciplineparticularlys it has been viewedand used byliterarycholarship. he cornerstonef thearthistorical otion fmeaning s ico-nography-sonamedbyPanofsky howas itsfounding athern ourtime. tsgreatachievementwas to demonstratehatrepresentationalictures re not intendedsolelyforperception,ut canbe read as having secondaryrdeeper evelofmean-

34 REPRESENTATIONS

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ing.What thendo we makeof the pictorial urface tself? n his seminalessay oniconographynd iconology,anofsky learly vadesthisquestion.8 e introduces issubjectwith hesimple xampleof meeting friendn the streetwho lifts is hat ngreeting. he blurof shapesand colors dentifieds a man and the sensethathe is

in a certainhumor re calledby Panofskyhe primary r naturalmeanings, ut theunderstandinghat oraise thehat s a greetings a secondary rconventional ean-ing.So farwe havebeen dealingonlywith ife.Panofsky'strategys then osimplyrecommendransferringheresults f thisanalysisfrom verydayifeto a workofart. So nowwe have a pictureof a man lifting is hat. What Panofsky hooses oignore s that the man is notpresentbut is re-presentedn thepicture. n whatmanner, nderwhat conditionss theman representedn painton the surface f acanvas?

Arthistorians nswer this question n stylisticerms.Gombrich, uite con-

sciously akingup wherePanofskyeft ff,made it his majortask to define tyle.Encapsulated n thebrilliantphrase"makingcomes beforematching," he rulinginsight fGombrich'sArt nd Illusionhas provided generationf iteraryriticswiththetouchstoneor heir nalysesof iteraryonvention. ut theyhave ignoredthefact hat n theprocess freplacing n expressive otion f stylewith represen-tational ne, Gombrich ffectivelyliminatesust whathe setsoutto define. espitehis emphasison "making"or convention,e is far from hestructuralisthathe issometimes akentobe. Gombrich reats epresentations a matter f skill-skill inrenderingnd skill n perception. ictorial onventionsn Western rt,he argues,

servethe perfectionf naturalistic epresentation hich Gombrich ignificantly

Fig. 4. Albrecht iirer. Draftsman rawing nude woodcut), n UnterweysungderMessung Nuremberg, 538).

l -

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Fig. 5. Illustration f theworkingof theeye nJohanvanBeverwyck,chatderOnge-

Al.3 sontheytAmsterdam,1664),vol. II, p. 87.

choosesto call "illusion."Basing himself n the rrefutablevidence fferedythestudy fperception, ombrich oncludes ydefining perfect epresentations in-distinguishable o our eyes fromnature. Like the current ommentatorsn LasMeninas, Gombrich ffectivelyredits heperfect epresentation ithmakingpic-turesdisappear:thequestion ofrepresentationetreats efore heperfectllusionVelazquez producesofthe painter, heprincess, nd herentourage.Anymeaningmustclearly ie elsewhere-beyond r beneath hesurface fthepicture.

It is herethatthe strength fFoucault'scommentaryn Las Meninas lies. Be-ginning, s hedoes,with determinatenddeterminingotion fclassicalrepresen-tation,he finds n thispainting tsrepresentation.oucault's xposition f thispointproceeds hrough careful iewing f theworkwhich s impressiveor ts attentive-ness.His interestn representationiveshimthe motive or ookingwhich s losttothose who seek meaning n signsof a claim to socialstatus.Foucault finelyvokesthe themeof reciprocity etween n absent viewer before he painting) nd theworld nview. He arguesthat he absenceof a subject-viewers essential o classicalrepresentation.his seemsto me wrong.Forthe reciprocityetween bsentviewerand world n viewis producednot by the absenceof a conscioushumansubject, sFoucault argues, but ratherby Velazquez's ambition o embrace two conflictingmodes of representation,ach of which constitutes he relationship etweentheviewerand thepicturing f theworlddifferently.t is the tensionbetween hesetwo-as between heopposingpoles of twomagnets hatonemightttemptobringtogether ithone'shands-that informs hispicture.

Imaginetwo differentinds fpictures-thefirsts conceived o be likea win-dowon theperceivedworld.The artist ositions imself n the viewer's ide ofthe

36 REPRESENTATIONS

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picture urface nd looksthrough heframe o theworld,whichhethen econstructson thesurface fthepicture ymeansofthe geometriconventionf inearperspec-tive.We can representhiswith Diirer'srendering f a draftsman t work fig.4).The relationship f themale artist o the femaleobserved,who offers er naked

body ohim tocapture n hisdrawing, s part andparcelofthecommandingttitudetoward he worldassumedbythismode ofrepresentation.

The secondmode s not a windowbutrather surface ntowhich n imageoftheworldcastsitself,ust as lightfocussed hrough lens forms picture n theretinaofthe eye. n place ofan artistwhoframes heworldtopicture t,the worldproduces ts own imagewithout necessary rame.This replicativemage is justthere or he ooking,without he nterventionf a humanmaker.The world o seenis conceived f as existingprior to the artist-viewer. nd in contrast o Direr'sartist, etus taketwomenobservinghe magemade by a cameraobscura fig.5).

(Appropriately,his s how theworking fthe eyewas illustratedn a Dutch medi-cal handbookof thetime.)The menare in a dark roomwhich s equippedwithalight-hole ittedwith a lens. They hold out a surface n which s cast the mageofthe landscapeoutside.Ratherthanman possessing hrough is artthewomanheobserves,wo menattend othe mage ofthe priorworld.The artist f thefirst indclaimsthat I see theworld"whilethatofthesecond howsrather hat heworld s"beingseen."9

I am not ust imagining wo kinds of pictures, ut describing wo modesofrepresentationhat re centralnWestern rt. As an exampleof thefirst, lbertian

model we mightkeep in our mind'seyea work suchas Titian's VenusofUrbino.The artist s a viewerwhois activelyooking ut at objects-preferably umanfig-ures-in space,figureswhoseappearance, onsidered s a matter fsize, s a func-tion of theirdistancefrom he viewer.For thesecond,which call thenorthernrdescriptivemode, hink fVermeer'sViewofDelft.A fragmentf a largerworld scompressednto pieceofcanvas, mpressingtssurfacewith olor ndlightwithouttaking heposition f a viewer xternal o it intoaccount.No scaleorhumanmea-sure is assumed. In Velazquez's Las Meninas we findthe two as it were com-pounded n a dazzling,butfundamentallynresolvableway.Whilein theAlbertian

picturethe artistpresumeshimself o stand with the viewerbefore he picturedworldin both a physical nd epistemologicalense, n thedescriptivemode he isaccountedfor, fat all, within hat world. A pictorialdevicesignalling his s theartistmirroredn the work as in Van Eyck'sArnol-fini)r a figure ituated s alookerwithin, ather ike a surveyor ituatedwithintheveryworldhe maps. InDutch paintings f thistype he lookerwithin hepicturedoesnot ookout. Thatwould indeedbe a contradictionince a pictureof this sortdoes notassume theexistence f viewersprior o and external o it,as doesthe Albertianmode.

In Las Meninas the lookerwithin hepicture-the onewhose view it is-not

only ooksout,but s suitablynone other han theartisthimself.What is extraordi-

InterpretationithoutRepresentation,r,The ViewingofLas Meninas 37

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Fig. 6. Diego Velizquez. BaltasarCarlosand aDwarf,1631. CourtesyMuseum of FineArts,Boston.Purchased,HenryLilliePierce Fund.

nary about this picture s a representations that we must take it at once as areplication f the world and as a reconstructionftheworldthatwe viewthrough

the window frame.The world seen has priority,ut so also do we, the viewers nthis ide ofthepicture urface. et me explain. Paradoxically,heworld een that spriorto us is preciselywhat,by lookingout (and herethe artist s joined by theprincess nd partof her retinue), onfirms r acknowledges s. But if we had notarrived ostandbefore hisworldto look at it,thepriorityf theworld een wouldnothave beendefined n the first lace. Indeed, ocomefull ircle, he world een sbefore s becausewe (alongwith he king nd queen as noted nthe distantmirror)are whatcommanded tspresence.10

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Las Meninas is producednotout of a single, lassicalnotion frepresentationsFoucault suggests, ut rather ut of specific ictorial raditions frepresentation.tconfounds stable reading,notbecause of the absenceof theviewer-subject,utbecause thepainting olds nsuspension wo contradictoryandtoVelazquez's sense

ofthings, nseparable)modesof picturing he relationship fviewer, ndpicture, oworld.One assumesthepriority f a viewerbefore hepicturewho s themeasure fthe world nd the other ssumes that he world s prior o anyhumanpresence ndis thus essentiallymmeasurable.

It is the economy fLas Meninas that so manyof its elements hare in thisunresolved mbivalence-an ambivalence hatmightbe said to form he basis ofVelazquez's representationfthe Spanish court. PrincessMargarita is made therepresentativeigure fthesecontendingmodes.We mustnotforgethatVelazquezchosea portrait f the ittle nfantafor he center f hismasterpiece.1Whyshouldthis be so? The question s not asked. But this diminutive et royal woman seemsremarkably o answer to the motives, s KennethBurke would call them, fVelaz-quez's artas well as ofhis viewof thecourt.Even as he onceagainconfirms omanas a centralmotifndpossession f the European painter's rt,Velazquez questionsher role: she is a princess, ut at thesame time littlegirl; he is mostmarvelouslyself-possessedn bearing, utis herself ossessedbythe court nd bytheroyal in-eage markedbyherplacementustbelow herparents'mirroredmage.

Let us consider hequestionof scale. No measurerules here: size and signifi-cance are at odds. (I have in mind the dislocation f scale and value beloved bynorthernrtists-Paulus Potter'shuge youngbull uxtaposed againsta tiny hurchsteeple.)Thoughtheprincesss thecenter f all attention,ermaids,one bentdowntomeether evel, nd evena dwarf, warfher.Astonishingly,f all thefigureshemostdiminished n size are the king nd queen. This is of course family ortraitwith forebears ramed n the back wall in a contemporaryutchmode.Velazquezhad alreadydealtwith conditionsf ineageand successionn an earlierportrait fthe ate PrinceBaltasarCarlos,thenheir othethrone. he young rince s learningtoride nthe

courtyardf the

Buen Retiro,Olivares sin

the middleground ndthe

tinyfigures f his royalparents re ust visibleon a distant alcony. t is a kind ofrehearsal for Las Meninas, thoughon a much smaller scale and much less com-plex.12 n Las Meninas it is notonlythe size but the mirroring f thekingandqueen that determines he natureof theirpresence.Mirrored nd framed n thebackwall, "reflected"n thetiny nfanta'spose and the attentive azes outof thepicture o the front,heirpresence s an oblique affair.At court, s in a picture,order s producedbyacts ofrepresentation.

The nature nd conditionfthe ocial order ontinuedopuzzleVelazquez.The

questionwas ofcoursepressedon him, iving s he did in theexceptionallyormaland ceremonialworldofthe SDanishcourt.The little rincess mongherattendantsis a successor oBacchusamonghis intheearlyLos Borrachos,s well as to Apollo

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at Vulcan'sforge. he dwarfs nd fools t court, ike thepaintedpeasantsor foundryworkers,display a certainmisrule. They were expected to challenge etiquette.Velazquez's early portrait f Baltasar Carlos with a dwarf fig.6) focusses n this.The portrait,t has been argued, ommemorateshe celebration f the Oath ofAlle-

giance juramento) o the future ing.13A tiny, pright hild,dressed n the guise ofa captain-general,onscious f his station s his eyes confront urs directly,s ac-companied yan awkwarddwarf, iseyesundirected, olding rattle nd an applewhich ape the scepter nd orb of theking-to-be. warf and futureking presentthemselvesorportrayal, ut with difference.he differencexisted n lifebut wesee itdue toVelazquez's representation.t is Velazquez, after ll,whoprovides heframework f art. But does art necessarily rame?One could argue that the dif-ference etween rince nd dwarf s that heprince s framed yartwhile thedwarfremainsresolutely ree f t.

It is hard not to see the double portrait rom he vantagepointoffered y LasMeninas,where elf-presentation,hesocialorder, nd theproductionfartare soprominentlyisplayed nd inwhichframing layssuch a majorrole. Seen one way,Las Meninas is a picture bout the role offraming: ramesnthe form fpictures,mirror, oors ndwindowsmeasureout thewalls at theback and to the right,whiletheedgeofthe argecanvas ntrudest the eft. he king, ueen,andtheir aughtertheprincesswho is posingfor hem, re knownby beingframed.But there s con-trary estimonyffered y thepicture s a whole. It is, as we have seen earlier,distinctly nframed, dmitting f no bounds and thus with its odd disruption f

significantize itcontradictshe order stablishedn theframingfthe court.It has been my ntentionn thisbrief ection obeginto suggestways nwhich

pictorial epresentation,n aesthetic rder, ngages lso a social one. It seems ome,however, o be a mistake o conclude, s has been doneon occasion, hatVelazquezpaintsthebankruptcyas it undoubtedlyhenwas) of theSpanish court and thefailureof theroyal ine.14What is remarkable-in the senseofneeding o be re-marked-about this rt s somethinghatVelazquez shareswith number fseven-teenthcentury rtists. t is that his understandingf the complexconditions frepresentation-bothestheticnd social-did notundermine is trust n it. As Las

Meninas shows, Velazquez sees himself s partof thevery ourthe sees through.

Notes

* Anearlierversion f thispaperwas presentedtthe ession n "Literature nd theOtherArts"at theannualmeeting ftheModern LanguageAssociation, ew York,1981.

1. Michel Foucault,The Order fThings,EnglishtranslationNew York:RandomHouse,VintageBooks,1973), pp. 3-16.

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2. For this quotation nd for brief ummary f early reactions o thepainting ee CarlJusti'smagisterial iego Velazquezand his Times,translated yA. H. Keane (London:H. Grevel and Co., 1889), pp. 414-22.

3. See JonathanBrown, The Meaning of Las Meninas," in Images and Ideas in Seven-teenth-Centurypanish Painting Princeton:PrincetonUniversity ress, 1978), p. 91.

4. JonathanBrown namesthe putative) entral vent "royal epiphany."Thoughadmit-tingthat the kingand queen are only shown ndirectly,e nevertheless ants to makesense of the painting y arguing hat"an extraordinaryerhapsunprecedentedvent sbeing shown to us. It is difficulto recall an earlier paintingn whicha livingmonarchand a painter t work re representedogether."bid.,p. 92.

5. The production fLas Meninas has been related o (actuallyonly uxtaposedwith)thewish of artistsnMadridtoenhance heir tatusbyfoundingn academy oreplace heirguild,to thegeneraleffortfthemembers fall craft uildstoavoidthe excessive eviesplacedon thembythe hard-pressed tate, nd toVelAzquez's ong campaign o obtainaknighthood. lthough he record fVelAzquez's mbitionst court s clear,hiscampaign

for heknighthoodnlybegantwoyears fter epainted as Meninas,and thered OrderofSantiago clearlydisplayed n his chestwas putthere nlyafter he artist's eath.SeeJonathan Brown,"The Meaning of Las Meninas," p. 92ff nd also Mary CrawfordVolk,"On VelAzquez nd the LiberalArts,"The ArtBulletin60 (1978), 69-86.

6. "To the modern bserver,nd particularlyo the modern rtist, his upremelyophisti-catedcompositionmaybe thepicture's hief laim to attention. ut it is not to be sup-posed that n the seventeenth enturyt was devised for ts own sake alone,withoutregard for the meaningof the whole." Madlyn Millner Kahr, Velazquez: The Art ofPainting New York:Harper & Row, 1976), p. 173.

7. In his recentmonograph n Fabritius,Christopher rown comments,There is no ob-vious topicalmilitary eference o be found n the painting, or s dereliction fduty n

entirely onvincingnterpretation.he possibilityemains hatno specificmeaningwasintendedby the artist."Christopher rown, Carel Fabritius Oxford: Phaidon Press,1981), p. 48. The extraordinaryomplexity f thearchitecturalpace reduces tshumaninhabitant, y contrast,othe tatus fan inanimate bject.The soldier ventakeson thecolors of his environment. uman passivitys shown to be in the verynature of theworld. t echoesMars asleepor in repose a figure ictured y VelAzquez, mongothersat thetime)butoffers hesoldier s a fact fpictorial, ather han mythological,ature.

8. ErwinPanofsky,Iconography nd Iconology:An Introductiono theStudyofRenais-sance Art," nMeaningin theVisualArts GardenCity,N.J.: Doubleday AnchorBooks,1955), pp. 26-30.

9. This verbal turn s not rrelevant. he distinction am drawingbetween wopictorialmodeshas certain nalogiestothedistinctionhat an be drawnbetween he propertiesfrepresentedhoughtnd speech known s style ndirectibre) and those f narrationerse in writtenanguage.Like representedhoughtndspeech, epresentedeeing for hatis a usefuldesignation or he northern r descriptivemode) manifests xtraordinaryt-tentivenesswithout,however, cknowledging hat interplaybetween senderand re-ceiver-be itworld and viewer r twospeakers-thatnormally haracterizes icturesnthe Italian mode or languagewhen spoken.See Ann Banfield, Where Epistemology,Style, nd GrammarMeet," New LiteraryHistory (1978), 417-54.

10. Asmy nterpretationuggests, think hat he ongheldviewof the ntrinsicallyuzzlingnature fLas Meninas is ustified. he question swhy ndinwhatrespectswe take tto

be puzzling.A powerful tudyby the philosopher ohn Searle posits ome of thesamecontradictionsfwhich havewritten. is conclusion iffers rommine becauseSearle

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assumes that there s a single canon of classical pictorial epresentation ith which theVelAzquezpictures notconsistent. he correction offer o his viewing s to dentifyheinconsistency ith the presence f two identifiable nd incompatiblemodes of pictorialrepresentation.t is, then,not the exception o a single representationalanon, but thetensionbetween he two that s at the heart of the picture.VelAzquez s engaged n a

testing nd questioning f the natureof the artist's elationship o his work and to theworld s positednWestern rt. The refutationf Searle's position y Snyder nd Cohenaccommodates he picture n the narrowestfgrounds o what they and Searle) wouldcall the classicalcanon of pictorial epresentation.y arguing correctly) hat hevanish-ing point s at the far, pen door and that he mirror n the wall cannotbe reflectingheking nd queen standing efore hepicture ut must epresentheking nd queen as theyare depicted n the hiddencanvas, they hink hat theyhave ruled out the paradoxicalnatureofVelAzquez'swork. But as Leo Steinbergwroterecently,he mirror ppearstoreflectot only the king nd queen painted n thehidden anvas,but also, and contradic-torily,heking ndqueenas they tandbeside heviewernfront fthepicture.Ambigu-

ity remains. See John Searle, "Las Meninas and Representation,"ritical Inquiry 6(1980), 477-88; Joel Snyder and Ted Cohen, "Reflectionsn Las Meninas: ParadoxLost," Critical Inquiry 7 (1980), 429-47; Leo Steinberg, Velazquez' Las Meninas,"October 15 (1981), 45-54.

11. In 1656, at the timeof herportrayaln Las Meninas, Margaritawas fiveyearsold. Sheand her stepsister, aria Teresa (soon tobe married o Louis XIV ofFrance) weretheonly urvivinghildren fPhilipIV.

12. For a discussion fthispaintingwhich s ownedbythe Grovesnor state n EnglandseeEnriqueta Harris, "Velazquez's PortraitfPrinceBaltasar CarlosintheRidingSchool,"The Burlington Magazine 118 (1976), 266-75.

13. See JonathanBrown nd J.H. Elliott,A Palace for a King (New Haven & London: Yale

University ress, 1980), p. 56 and pp. 253-54.14. For a passingremark othis ffecteeJohnH. Elliott,mperial Spain 1469-1716 (Lon-

don:EdwardArnoldLtd., 1963), p. 381. VelAzquez, fter ll, chose todevote lmosthisentireworking ife to advancementn and depictionof the Spanish court. One canusefully ontrast is art in thisregard o the worksof Manet. This nineteenthenturyFrenchpainter,who admiredVelazquez before ll other rtists, ad neither courtnorVelazquez's sustaining rustn representation.he very ualityof Manet's painted ur-facesreveals s much.

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