Page "Diego Velázquez" Paragraph 39

Created four years before his death, it serves as an outstanding example of the European baroque period of art.

An apotheosis of the work has been effected since its creation ; Luca Giordano, a contemporary Italian painter, referred to it as the " theology of painting ", and in the eighteenth century the Englishman Thomas Lawrence cited it as the " philosophy of art ", so decidedly capable of producing its desired effect.

That effect has been variously interpreted ; Dale Brown points out an interpretation that, in inserting within the work a faded portrait of the king and queen hanging on the back wall, Velázquez has ingeniously prognosticated the fall of the Spanish empire that was to gain momentum following his death.

Another interpretation is that the portrait is in fact a mirror, and that the painting itself is in the perspective of the King and Queen, hence their reflection can be seen in the mirror on the back wall.