Picasso Paintings: Las Meninas
Posted by Susan Benford
An art history blog post from Famous Paintings Reviewed.
Although its early Picasso paintings and drawings are touted by the Picasso museum in Barcelona, I think the Picasso paintings called Las Meninas Series are the real masterpieces there.
Picasso, who didn't shrink from measuring himself against famous painters from other art periods, explored and interpreted famous paintings by Courbet, Manet, El Greco, and Velazquez.
Diego Velazquez. Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), 1656. Oil on canvas, 10'5" by 9' Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Between August and September of 1957, Picasso delved into an analysis of Las Meninas, one of the best known Velazquez paintings. In his interpretative analysis of the Velazquez Las Meninas, Picasso generated a series of 58 art paintings, explaining:
If anyone were to try to copy Las Meninas in complete good faith, and for example got to a certain point - and if I were the copier - I would say to myself, "If I just put this a little more to the right or left?". I would try to do it my own way, forgetting about Velazquez.
In each of the Picasso Las Meninas paintings, it's fascinating to observe which elements of the Velazquez Las Meninas Picasso preserved and which he altered.
Among the more prominent changes by Picasso are:
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altering the picture format from vertical to horizontal, and
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opening the windows on the right which Velazquez had painted closed.
In Las Meninas (Group), Picasso retains the two groups from the Velazquez Las Meninas:
1. Agustina de Sarmiento and the Infanta Margaritz, and
2. the trio of Isabel de Velasco, Maribarbola and Nicolasito in the right foreground. His variation here is nearly stripped of all color, turning this famous painting into grisaille.
Pablo Picasso. Las Meninas (Group), 1957. Oil on canvas, approx. 6'4" by 8'6". Museo Picasso, Barcelona.
Picasso reinstates color in subsequent variations on Las Meninas as he explores studies of 
Pablo Picasso. Las Meninas (Group), 1957. Oil on canvas, approx. 6'4" by 8'6". Museu Picasso, Barcelona.
the intact groups Velazquez presented; in other Picasso paintings, he delves into individual portraits and portraits of each of the trios.
It's a marvel to see this entire ensemble of Picasso paintings in one place... while it's nearly incomprehensible that Picasso completed his Las Meninas paintings in only four months.
If you, too, are lucky enough to view these Picasso paintings... let us know how you like his riff on Velazquez!
You can explore more Picasso paintings -- and 247 other famous paintings - in Masterpiece Cards, art history flashcards of famous paintings from over 5 centuries in the history of painting.
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Either way... there's nothing like them.