During a stay in Minneapolis, I discovered in the art museum (Minneapolis Institute of Art), a version of Velazquez’ Las Meninas by Salvator Dali.
The title is: Portrait of Juan de Pareja, the Assistant of Velázquez (Portrait de Juan de Pareja, l’assistant de Velázquez).
As you may be aware, Dali studied extensively his Spanish master, Velazquez. I was surprised that the painting is not well known and how it looks weird and lacking structure, as it may appear at first sight. I spent a bit of time analyzing it – with the assumption that it was better that it seems to be.
And in fact, the painting is very significant, full of possible interpretations that makes it a great masterpiece and a painting that deserves much more attention.
The comments from the museum on the painting are somewhat minimal. You can find here what they say about it: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/dali
1. Las Meninas, the original
The painting by Velazquez “Las Meninas” has been extensively commented. You can find here a nice version of it:https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/las-meninas/9fdc7800-9ade-48b0-ab8b-edee94ea877f
During a personal work I conducted a few years ago, I developed a new angle of description that includes the following elements:
Las Meninas was primarily a portrait of the Spanish royal family. The right side of the painting illustrates the progression to maturity. It starts with childhood represented by the dwarves, then, teenage years represented by the standing Maid of Honor. The couple represents adulthood and the man on the stairs in full light, is the symbol for maturity. The left side of the painting depicts the narcissistic image generated by the painter and the mirror, and the psychological image of the parental couple. Hidden and inaccessible, as the canvas where the King and the Queen are painted. Both intimate and remote, like their image in the mirror (the red curtain in the mirror represents this intimacy). The posture of the Infante, with her face turned to the left and her body slightly twisted to the right, suggests the conflict felt by the child: whether to become an adult or to remain immature and under parental influence.
Other relevant elements include:
1. The dog (the image of fidelity) kicked by a kid, that might be a representation of the impertinence of childhood;
2. The two paintings of the back wall both represent a similar mythological story (Pan/Apollo, Arachne/Athena). They are symmetrically arranged above the mirror, with the feminine version above the Queen, and the masculine version above the King.
This arrangement may represent the theme of transmission and inheritance of talent (human vs divine origin). The presence of these paintings in Velazquez’ masterpiece may also suggest the theme of rivalry between the master and its student: the paintings were reproduction of Master’s paintings (Rubens) made by Del Mazo, the student/stepson/successor of Velazquez.
2. The version by Dali
The painting by Dali (1960) is a follow-up of a painting of the Infante that Dali made few years before and is part of the tribute made by Picasso and Dali to their master. It also occurs in the context of the “competition” with Picasso, who had made during the same period a very famous series of 52 reproductions of “Las Meninas”.
You can find here a high quality reproduction of the painting https://www.salvador-dali.org/fr/oeuvre/catalogue-raisonne-peinture/colleccions/the-minneapolis-institute-of-arts-minneapolis-minnesota/761/portrait-de-juan-de-pareja-l-assistant-de-velazquez
Both Picasso and Dali were Spanish and studied Velazquez during their training. Dali, because of his deep interest in symbolism and psychoanalysis, was certainly well aware of the elements that Velazquez included in his painting.
What do we see in Dali’s painting? To be honest, the first impression is rather chaotic, and we do not see an obvious tribute by Dali to its master. What is the message?
At first, I found striking that all of the figures from Las Meninas are represented (Maids, Nieto, Velazquez, dwarfs), with the noticeable exception of the dog. In fact, by reading about this painting, I found no description of the dog in Dali’s painting.
Therefore, I searched for the dog in the painting. And it is there, so big that we cannot miss it, but somewhat hidden.
Actually, the part above the diagonal starting up left (almost half of the painting!) is the head a dog, which looks strikingly like Dali’s dog in a famous photography of Dali from 1954 (i.e. a few years before this painting was executed).
In the Dali's painting, the dog’s mouth is replaced by a piece of sewed fabric, barring him from barking, eat or bite, which may represent a castration. The image of the dog evolved from impertinence of childhood (and of the painter, in Velasquez – the master) to an image of castration (for its followers, like Dali)?
Juan was the assistant of Velasquez. Velazquez had forbidden Juan from practicing painting, whereas he became a professional painter after Velazquez death. The faithful dog barred from expressing himself?
The beautifully drawn hand of Juan repairing the string, makes a striking link with the paintings at the back wall in Velazquez' painting- seemingly like the stories of Pan and Arachnee merged together.
In Dali's painting, the many repairs in the canvas (including the piece at the dog’s mouth) may also be a direct evocation of the Arachne/Athena story, placed in the forefront. The feminine part of the transmission / heritage, and its relationship to castration ?
A profile (of Juan, according to the comment of the painting in the museum) might be seen, but the quality of the drawing is far from perfect. Given Dali’s excellence in drawing, I don’t know how important this is. I think that the mirror (and the parental couple that it encloses in Velazquez' painting), as being the dog’s eye is a much better image. It raises the question: how can we develop one’s own look?
In fact, the door where Nieto is standing projects into a series of frames, that highlights the unity/symmetry of canvas/doors/mirror in the original, placing them in a progression toward the eye of the dog. Stunning.
The many pins, several of which have shape of Christ cross, as they are also used to attach a canvas, could make a link between painting and religion (the religion of painting?).
Altogether, the relationship between the master and its student, which is the theme of paintings from the back wall of the Meninas, replaced by the theme of the castration (freed by Art?), are very interesting themes, especially in the context of the Spanish culture and psychoanalysis.
Would we say that Dali beats Picasso in its tribute to Velazquez famous painting Las Meninas ? We will let the public judge, but Dali's painting is certainly full of very exciting interpretations…
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