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‘Escribió a Italia. Vinieron los pintores’: Bolognese quadratura , Illusionism and Velázquez's Las meninas

2017; Routledge; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14753820.2017.1345145

1478-3428

Jeremy Robbins,

Historical Studies of Medieval Iberia

In this article, I place Velázquez's Las meninas in the context of Baroque illusionism, specifically Baroque quadratura as exemplified by two of its greatest practitioners, Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli, who Velázquez was instrumental in bringing to Madrid. In so situating Las meninas, I argue that Velázquez's masterpiece was, in part, his magisterial response to the creative challenge posed by the distinctive form of spatial illusionism of these Bolognese artists; their work was a major impetus behind both his decision to explore illusionistic space at a late stage in his career and the manner in which he did so.