“Las Meninas” by Diego Valesquez Essay

Despite this ‘trickery’ on the portion of the creative person. it can non be denied that this picture has belonging at its bosom. The delicious small miss is adored by all around her and her artlessness and self- confidence that she is loved and cared for as she stands in the Centre of the frame. bathed in visible radiation. is a show of connection to household and topographic point. The puzzling picture “Las Meninas” by Diego Valesquez was painted in 1656 and many inquiries were raised about world and semblance and the movie “Strictly Ballroom” was filmed in 1992 and directed by Baz Lurhmman. Framing is what is intentionally included in the frame and what is excluded. The picture shows a “moment in time” during the mundane life of the royal household. The male monarch and queen are merely seen in the mirror ; it is merely when we realise this that we understand we are looking at the picture from the position of the royal twosome.

Velasquez has centred the focal point of this painting non on the royal twosome. but on their small miss. who has entered the room with her attenders to hold a expression at the creative person and his work. Once the audience realises this. their apprehension of how cagey the framing is can be realised. In Strictly Ballroom. each shooting is carefully considered to do us inquiry and understand the characters and their motives. Shirley Hastings is frequently shown in near up to foreground her hysterical aspiration. When Scott and Fran are viewed together. they are frequently framed in perfect symmetricalness or balance to demo the strength of their brotherhood. In Las Meninas. it is non until we realise how smartly we have been “framed” that we understand the true facet of the image. In the picture. Diego Velasquez used different scopes of darkness in the background and elation in the foreground.

The visible radiation in the foreground focuses us on the immature girl who instantly catches our attending. The mirror somewhat highlighted in the background focuses us. the viewing audiences. on the point that the male monarch and queen are being painted and that we are looking in from their positions. Luhrmann cleverly utilizations illuming to demo us the ‘boundaries’ of the included and the excluded. For illustration. scenes which focus on Doug Hastings dancing entirely do us gain that he is in his ain small universe. cut off from the craze and frenetic gait of the studio ( and his married woman ) . When Scott and Fran dance together. entirely or in her backyard. the lighting is softer and more ‘real’ as opposed to the rough fluorescent and inundation visible radiation of the dance sphere.

Las Meninas portrays a sense of illusory. where we think we are looking at one thing. when in existent fact we are meant to be seeing another. Las Meninas creates this consequence for us. when we look at the image we automatically assume that the image was painted around the immature miss which is centred in the image. The thought that “things are non what they seem” is developed farther in Strictly Ballroom when we consider the unreal universe of the dance floor. Feathers. flowers. fruit are all unreal and used to rise the unreal glamor of the rivals. This sense of fakery is heightened when we learn that the competitions can be ‘rigged’ . We are besides invited to see the movie through the eyes of the ‘documentary’ spectator as Shirley recounts the first half of the narrative in flashback.