Hiding in Plain Sight: A Profile of Artistic Purpose in Velazquez’s Las Meninas Or: The Artist as Creator King

Abstract

Though Diego Velazquez‘s masterpiece Las Meninas is one of the most celebrated paintings in the modern world, its full meaning is still considered somewhat of a mystery. In view of this, the authors of this essay, two experienced law enforcement profilers, employ criminal profiling analysis and techniques to examine the actual evidence in plain sight within the painting as a whole. Much commentary has been written about the skills of the artist, and various eras and styles of art or the proportions in the painting; yet, this is not simply a painting about the artist and his manifold subjects portrayed in a specific era; the evidence within the painting points us in a rather new and unique direction, providing us with a ―plausible rival hypothesis‖ about the artistic purpose in the painting. In essence, Velazquez is creating and paying deep homage to the new royal court and power of artistic creation; in turn, he is honoring the almost divine-like powers of new royalty, the artist as Creator–King. As such, we as spectators are also participants and the critical subjects and audience, in this new ROYAL COURT OF ART, as portrayed in this extraordinary painting by the Artist King, Diego Velazquez. Methodologies: Criminal Profiling, Link Analysis, Multiplex Methodology Critical Words: Velazquez, Las Meninas, Picasso, Spanish Art, Full Ground, Integral Inquiry Authors’ Preface: Profilers As Artists. The authors of this essay are consultants or profilers of varied experience for law enforcement agencies as well as being amateur artists. In view of this, they have both shared a fascination with self-portraits of artists, especially those consisting of a painting of the artist in his or her own studio—as in Vermeer‘s The Art of Painting.2 In the enclosed essay, the authors have developed a summary profile-study of Diego Velazquez‘s Las Meninas which hangs in the Museo del Prado located in almost the center of in Madrid, Spain, the homeland that gave it such an auspicious birth.3 Uniqueness is often overlooked by scholars, eager to situate singular events or even creations in a theoretical and thus generalized context, but never by law enforcement investigators. As such, the painting Las Meninas is the primary scene to be investigated, not of an illustrious example of Baroque period art, but first and foremost, as a unique creation. As such, our perspective is that of investigators searching for or looking at the evidence in plain sight, not simply as witnesses or appreciative spectators. Furthermore, the evidence in a superior realist painting (or crime scene) is often profoundly interrelated and interdependent; yet, such subtle interplay is often lost on spectators who cannot get beyond their own prejudices, stereotypes or shibboleths to see theradical uniqueness of life or art. 1 Interdisciplinary Professor, Salisbury University; Andrei Ibid is a semi-retired Law Enforcement Profiler and amateur artist. 2 We will not engage in the ongoing debate of whether this is, in fact Vermeer in the painting except to note that, with the tangled yet apparent Black and White Masks on the table, separated by the head of an apparent serpent, pondered by the Muse of History, there may be much meaning uninvestigated in this painting as well. 3Masterpieces of the Prado. Thames & Hudson; 1 edition (September 13, 2016); Also see: O.C. Paredes, Prado Gallery, a New Guide. Editorial Mayfe, S.S. Madrid, 1976; Bernardino de Pantorrba, A Guide Book of the Prado Museum, Editorial Gran Capitan, Madrid, 1950. 2 International Journal of Art and Art History, Vol. 7, No. 2, December 2019 This is why such uncorroborated accounts of a witness or various witness narrations and accounts are notoriously unreliable in reconstructing the events that a witness supposedly viewed firsthand. For this reason, we call the resulting perceptions of such immediate and uncorroborated narratives by individuals ―Rorschach Realities‖ since the witnesses or profilers themselves, often see what they only want to see, or believe to perceive. 4 So, in the following profile of Las Meninas, the authors relied on the painting itself as the primary evidence of the artist’s purpose or intent. Because of this, our academic references or citations from texts on the subject, though sometimes perused are kept to a minimum, in the following summary and preliminary profile;5 This is true with the exception of reviewing Picasso‘ nearly fifty renditions of the same painting, many of which are whimsical and pure joy, yet retain key insights gleamed by a fellow great Spanish painter;6 we examined some of these masterful renditions carefully as well. As a useful though tentative starting point, we have borrowed from Michal Foucault‘s book The Order ofThings which proved useful in our preliminary study and subsequent investigation.7 In particular, we share with Foucault a healthy skepticism, especially at first, of academic discourses within the domain disciplines, especially concerning the history of art; for instance, the authors regard critical commentary or artistic ̳labels‖—such as ―Naturalism‖ or ―Baroque art‖ –as primary explanations or even as ―witnesses‖ and, as such, offer only preliminary, non-definitive and even poor substitutes for thinking and appreciating anew in the exhaustive inquiry required to decipher a painter‘s often complex purpose or intent in choosing the time, place, setting and subjects of his creative composition. This is especially true, we believe, when the artist chooses his own studio for his or her self-portrait; the artist‘s studio is often a profoundly personal place and space; yet, the artist studio is not simply a space where creative activity occurs; an artist‘s studio is a source of personal inspiration and insight and becomes an essential part of the creative process itself, as Rodin‘s personal studio which was full of models, busts, half-finished arms and legs attests.8 The artist studio is also a personal statement since he or she can choose what is there, and what to omit. In his or her private studio, the artist is fully in control to construct a ―full-ground‖ creation that is can provide special insight into his or her artistic processes and purpose;9 this is especially true of a genius and master in his trade, Velazquez, who certainly has a unique vision to share in his Masterpiece (or one of them), Las Meninas.10 By ―full ground,‖ we mean taking into account, and making fully explicit, the complex configuration of interrelationships that constitute a specific phenomenon.11 4 We name this phenomenon of varied ―eye witness‖ accounts of the same events as Rorschach realities in honor of Dr. Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist who was also an amateur artist but tragically died very young. Even so, he developed the famous Rorschach tests that are still used in criminal investigations today, especially of shallow art critics and other fraudsters. The table in the Vermeer painting cited supra, nte 1 is an example of such ―realities.‖ We try to escape from this danger here, but we are inevitably embedded cultural beings as well, so you must be the judge of our success in the following very tentative profile. 5 The historic debate concerning Las Meninas is prodigious, often contentious, and at times trivial. For serious though contested commentary, see, for example: Steinberg, L. (1981). Velázquez Las Meninas . October, 45-54.;Searle, J. R. (1980). Las Meninas and the Paradoxes of Pictorial Representation. Critical inquiry, 6(3), 477-488. Snyder, J., & Cohen, T. (1980). Reflexions on Las Meninas : Paradox Lost. Critical Inquiry, 7(2), 429-447; Alpers, S. L. (1983). Interpretation Without Representation: Or, the Viewing of Las Meninas. University of California Press 6 See: Sabartés, Jaume (1959). Picasso, Las Meninas y la vida. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili; Rafart i Planas, Claustre (2001). Picasso s Las Meninas. Barcelona: Meteora; Calvo Serraller, Francisco; Giménez, Carmen (2006). Picasso, tradición y vanguardia. 38. Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado / Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía 7Foucault, M. (2005). The Order of Things. Also see: Greslé, Y. (2006). Foucault s Las Meninas and art‐ historical methods. Journal of Literary Studies, 22(3-4), 211-228.. 8 See Grappe, G. (1927). Catalogue du Musée Rodin. Hôtel Biron. Musée Rodin.; or, more recently, Crouch, C. (1982). In Rodin s Studio: A Photographic Record of Sculpture in the Making by Albert E. Elsen and Walter A. Haas. Leonardo, 15(2), 168-168. 9Almost alone among her peers, Susan Alpers recognizes the central importance of the Artist‘s personal studio, and devotes the first chapter of her book Vexations, to this critical topic. See: Alpers, S. (2007). The vexations of art: Velázquez and others. Yale University Press. Yet, she focuses on Velasquez‘s painting the Spinners in this text. 10 It didn‘t hurt that Velasquez was often tasked with buying art for the King which then found its way into his studio! 11Boudreau, T. (1998). Universitas: the social restructuring of American undergraduate education. Greenwood Publishing Group. Also see: BLINDSPOTS: AN EPISTEMIC EXPLORATION INTO INTEGRAL INQUIRY, LINK ANALYSIS AND THE CONCEPTUAL CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE. (Unpublished manuscript) See infra, note 12 .