Las Meninas (horse)
Las Meninas (foaled 22 April 1991) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. In a racing career which lasted from June 1993 to November 1994 she ran eight times and won two races. As a two-year-old she won on her debut and finished second in the Phoenix Stakes at Leopardstown. On her three-year-old debut, Las Meninas defeated Balanchine to win the Classic 1000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse becoming the first Irish winner since 1975. She went on to finish second in the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh but her subsequent form deteriorated and she finished unplaced in her remaining four races. Las Meninas was retired from racing to become a broodmare at the end of her three-year-old season.
Background
Las Meninas was a bay filly bred in Ireland by her owner, Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud. She was sired by Glenstal, a son of Northern Dancer who won the National Stakes in 1982 and the Prix Daphnis a year later. Apart from Las Meninas, his best winners included the Premio Parioli winner Candy Glen, and Glen Kate, a mare who won the Hong Kong International Bowl. Las Meninas, who was named after the painting by Velasuez, was sent into training with the former National Hunt jockey Tommy Stack at Golden, County Tipperary. The filly's one eccentricity was her tendency to swish her tail when walking, sometimes regarded as a sign of an unreliable temperament.
Las Meninas
Las Meninas (pronounced: [laz meˈninas]; Spanish for The Maids of Honour) is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age, in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The work's complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted. Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting.
The painting shows a large room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured, according to some commentators, in a particular moment as if in a snapshot. Some look out of the canvas towards the viewer, while others interact among themselves. The young Infanta Margaret Theresa is surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs and a dog. Just behind them, Velázquez portrays himself working at a large canvas. Velázquez looks outwards, beyond the pictorial space to where a viewer of the painting would stand. In the background there is a mirror that reflects the upper bodies of the king and queen. They appear to be placed outside the picture space in a position similar to that of the viewer, although some scholars have speculated that their image is a reflection from the painting Velázquez is shown working on.
Las Meninas (film)
Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) is a 2008 Ukrainian film directed by Ihor Podolchak. Its title alludes to the painting of Diego Velázquez Las Meninas. Ihor Podolchak was the producer, screenwriter and director of this film. Las Meninas was produced by MF Films (a subdivision of Masoch Fund). It was the first Ukrainian film to participate in the Tiger Awards Competition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. As of beginning of 2011, the film has participated in 27 international film festivals, including 10 competition programs. In 2011, it was included in Top 15 Best Ukrainian films of the 20 years’ Independence period.
Plot
The film is about what the routine of everyday life can do to the human mind and psyche. It also reflects on the importance of the choices we make and how limited these choices are in the first place. The plot evolves around a family of four. They live in the suburbs, in a strange villa that appears, through a complex game of mirrors, to be more like a piece of installation art than a real house. The main character, who hardly appears on screen, is the son, a man in his thirties. Suffering from asthma and eczema since childhood, he uses his condition to manipulate his parents and his sister. Thus the existence of the terrorized family turns into an endless ritual of attempting to satisfy his whims, and always on the alert for yet another one of his “health crises”.
Las Meninas (Picasso)
Las Meninas is a series of 58 paintings that Pablo Picasso painted in 1957 by performing a comprehensive analysis, reinterpreting and recreating several times Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez. The suite is fully preserved at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona and is the only complete series of the artist that remains together. This is a very extensive survey work which consists of 45 performances of the original picture, nine scenes of a dove, three landscapes and a portrait of Jacqueline.
Picasso himself understood this series as a whole and as such donated it to the museum in Barcelona in May 1968 in memory of Jaime Sabartés who died the same year. Picasso said to Sabartés in 1950:
The suite
Exhibits
The Suite has been shown in the following exhibitions:
Podcasts:
