Las Meninas Juan Downey, 1975

Las Meninas is a brilliant essay on illusionism, mirrors and perception in art, life and video, articulated by Downey as a subjective interpretation of Velasquez s eponymous Baroque masterpiece. Through a theatrical reenactment of the painting s pictorial tableau and a rearticulation of its complex perspectival structure, Downey brings to life the spatial dynamics, illustrating the psychological tension of the relationship between viewer and subject. Placing Las Meninas in a historical context, Downey relates the painting s thematics to Spain s economic and political systems of the late 17th century.