Las Meninas

For centuries, the painting representing the family of Felipe IV has been the center of attraction of the Prado Museum and has inspired artists and writers, becoming a true cultural icon. However, Diego Velázquez is one of the most mysterious painters of his time, and Las Meninas, his masterpiece, the pinnacle of Spanish Baroque painting, is perhaps also the strangest of the great paintings of Western painting. After a lifetime at court in the service of Philip IV, Velázquez was finally knighted in 1658, achieving an unusual dignity for a painter at the time. Around this act of courtly ennoblement, Santiago García and Javier Olivares construct in the graphic novel Las Meninas a far-reaching fantasy inspired by historical events. Through its pages they pass from the Count-Duke of Olivares to Foucault, from El Greco to Buero Vallejo. This is not just the story of a work of art, but the story of how a work of art is transformed into a symbol. And at the end, too, a new attempt to answer the question that generations of artists, historians, scholars and fans have asked themselves: what is the secret of Las Meninas? A secret hidden in plain sight.