Gustave Courbet and the Absorption of Las Meninas
... In a work such as Diego Velazquez’ Las Meninas, for instance, it seems as if he painted himself in the image for a more complex purpose. ... Complexity in self-portraiture is also found in Gustave Courbet’s The Painter’s Studio. ... Las Meninas is a source of intense debate amongst art historians. ... Gallery paintings share many similarities with Las Meninas. ... Las Meninas shares a setting that is equal to this description; the walls are covered with paintings and the actual room is unidentifiable. ... A very curious aspect of Las Meninas is the mirror located on the back wall in the center of the room. ... If this is true then Las Meninas is obviously a painting about the making of a painting. ... Keith Broadfoot argues that the image in the mirror makes Las Meninas a statement about Royal portraiture. ... Broadfoot’s main assertion is that Las Meninas presents to the King a kind of introspection: These are questions which increase in complexity with the realization of the possibility that what Las Meninas is presenting to the king is not only the contemplation of himself in a mirror, but also the contemplation of himself as he stands as a model in the act of himself becoming a portrait (Broadfoot 221). While there is no evidence that Gustave Courbet’s The Painter’s Studio was directly influenced by Velasquez, we do know that Courbet had an interest in Velazquez’ works. One of Courbet’s chief characteristics as ‘founder’ of avant-garde, was his firm rejection of academic instruction in painting. ... Courbet’s painting After Dinner at Ornans is an example of the influence on Courbet from Velazquez as well as Rembrandt; it contains elements from both Velazquez and Rembrandt’s version of Supper At Emmaus. ... By comparing the three images, Clark argues, we can actually see what elements Courbet got from each work: From the Le Nains he took a certain gravity of tone and a ruthless simplicity of arrangement, with the figures placed casually across the canvas surface. ... And from Rembrandt he borrowed the pose of Marlet, and most of all the rich variations of colour within a narrow range, greens, greys, browns, and black (Clark 72)… The ‘absorption’ happens in the way that all of the ‘borrowed’ elements tend to negate each other. ... Velazquez’ Las Meninas seems to have a similar influence on Courbet’s The Studio. ... Courbet’s The Painter’s Studio inspires the same amount of controversy and questioning as does Las Meninas. Most of the controversial elements can be paralleled with elements of Las Meninas. ... In Las Meninas, the identities of the subjects are known and they share activities. ... The meaning of Las Meninas is conjoined with this moment. ... However, instead of being between action as in Las Meninas, the subjects in The Painter’s Studio are all engaged in private activities all at once. The composition of Las Meninas is almost tunnel-like; the position of the King and Queen (outside of the painting) leads all the way back to the man standing in the staircase. ... It seems as if Courbet took Velazquez’ complex use of depth and applied it at another level. ... In Las Meninas, Velazquez stands as the tallest person in the painting. ... Courbet’s presence in The Painter’s Studio is also quite confusing in the way that he is painting a landscape when a nude model is posing right next to him.