The Spinners Center
The Spinners Center (El Centro de la Persona que hace Girar or El Centro de "Las Hilanderas" ), Tim Lowly © 2015, acrylic on panel, 18" x 13.5"
This painting is part of the re. Rainbow Girl project. The "meaning" of these paintings is suggested in part by their conversation with specific works of art–mainly well known European paintings.
Last year I was making a sketch of the painting “Las Hilanderas” ("The Spinners") by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez in the Prado Museum when a tour group came into the gallery. The tour guide began her talk about this painting by saying, “When you first look at this painting you think it is about the spinners, but…” and she went on to explain, as art historians have written, that the painting was actually a depiction of the myth of Arachne and Minerva. That story, simply put, is that the goddess Minerva becomes incensed when she hears that the mortal Arachne claims that she can weave better than anyone. Minerva comes in the guise of an old woman and challenges Arachne to a weave-off. Arachne wins and Minerva is so angry she turns Arachne into a spider. Ostensibly, in this painting Arachne and Minerva show up twice: First, in the foreground Minerva is the older woman on the right (who appears to have the leg of a young woman) and Arachne is the young woman on the right in the white blouse. And second, in the back room Minerva is the figure with the helmet and she is about to turn Arachne into a spider. The painting is made even more complicated–but also clearer in intent–with the inclusion of a second myth depicted in the weaving on the back wall of the back room. This tapestry is based on a painting by Rubens (Velázquez’s chief competition) which was a copy of a painting by Titian (regarded by both Velázquez and Rubens as the “god of painting”) titled The Rape of Europa . In that painting the god Jupiter, in the guise of a bull, absconds with the mortal woman Europa.
When that Prado tour guide said, “…you think it is about the spinners, but…” I was tempted to turn and say, “Actually, it is about the spinners.” Here’s why: There are two myths alluded to in the painting: these stories share in common the conflictual relation between a god and a human. There are two spaces in the painting: in the background, the play room of the aristocracy and, in the foreground, the weaving room with the workers. There seems to be an at least implicit analogy being made between the relationships of god - human and that of the aristocracy - workers. If one is inclined to understand these aspects of the painting to suggest that Velázquez is reflecting on social and political status it seems quite clear that he has privileged the weavers in the fore-ground by virtue of scale, presence and–by allusion to the Arachne / Minerva tale–creative significance.
Painting as a form of theater, where the artist uses anonymous models to play roles, was a common practice in the Renaissance. By the Baroque period it became more common that the identity of the model had some role in the work: Carravagio being one of the better known examples of artists doing this. As such Velázquez was not without precedent in his practice. Never-the-less, as the court painter it seems quite remarkable the number of times that he depicted specific people who were members of the “lower” classes, including some who were physically or mentally disabled. Particularly significant is the way he represents them such as to give them a dignified and more complex presence in a context that one would expect them to be marginalized.
The lack of an apostrophe in the title of my painting “The Spinners Center” allows for two possible meanings, meanings which are alluded to by the two Spanish titles. The double meaning plays into the idea that Temma is both 1) herself as the subject and 2) playing a role in a work with a “bigger” subject. On the one hand the title "El Centro de la Persona que hace Girar" translates as “The Spinner’s Center”, that is the center of the one who spins: centering the painting’s significance in the one depicted (who does indeed appear to be spinning). On the other hand "El Centro de 'Las Hilanderas'" (The Center of “The Spinners) references the painting by Velázquez that we have been considering. Specifically it points to the woman in the red skirt who is at the center of that painting. This shadowed figure seems relatively inactive: perhaps she is carding the wool that is to be spun. I find myself drawn to the gesture of her arm reaching towards the floor and the slight turn of her head–as if turning towards the drama in the back room. She seems to exist between the two worlds: on the margins of both yet somehow centering them. In that sense I find her to be much like Temma.
The Spinners Center
The Spinners Center (El Centro de la Persona que hace Girar or El Centro de "Las Hilanderas" ), Tim Lowly © 2015, acrylic on panel, 18" x 13.5"
This painting is part of the re. Rainbow Girl project. The "meaning" of these paintings is suggested in part by their conversation with specific works of art–mainly well known European paintings.
Last year I was making a sketch of the painting “Las Hilanderas” ("The Spinners") by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez in the Prado Museum when a tour group came into the gallery. The tour guide began her talk about this painting by saying, “When you first look at this painting you think it is about the spinners, but…” and she went on to explain, as art historians have written, that the painting was actually a depiction of the myth of Arachne and Minerva. That story, simply put, is that the goddess Minerva becomes incensed when she hears that the mortal Arachne claims that she can weave better than anyone. Minerva comes in the guise of an old woman and challenges Arachne to a weave-off. Arachne wins and Minerva is so angry she turns Arachne into a spider. Ostensibly, in this painting Arachne and Minerva show up twice: First, in the foreground Minerva is the older woman on the right (who appears to have the leg of a young woman) and Arachne is the young woman on the right in the white blouse. And second, in the back room Minerva is the figure with the helmet and she is about to turn Arachne into a spider. The painting is made even more complicated–but also clearer in intent–with the inclusion of a second myth depicted in the weaving on the back wall of the back room. This tapestry is based on a painting by Rubens (Velázquez’s chief competition) which was a copy of a painting by Titian (regarded by both Velázquez and Rubens as the “god of painting”) titled The Rape of Europa . In that painting the god Jupiter, in the guise of a bull, absconds with the mortal woman Europa.
When that Prado tour guide said, “…you think it is about the spinners, but…” I was tempted to turn and say, “Actually, it is about the spinners.” Here’s why: There are two myths alluded to in the painting: these stories share in common the conflictual relation between a god and a human. There are two spaces in the painting: in the background, the play room of the aristocracy and, in the foreground, the weaving room with the workers. There seems to be an at least implicit analogy being made between the relationships of god - human and that of the aristocracy - workers. If one is inclined to understand these aspects of the painting to suggest that Velázquez is reflecting on social and political status it seems quite clear that he has privileged the weavers in the fore-ground by virtue of scale, presence and–by allusion to the Arachne / Minerva tale–creative significance.
Painting as a form of theater, where the artist uses anonymous models to play roles, was a common practice in the Renaissance. By the Baroque period it became more common that the identity of the model had some role in the work: Carravagio being one of the better known examples of artists doing this. As such Velázquez was not without precedent in his practice. Never-the-less, as the court painter it seems quite remarkable the number of times that he depicted specific people who were members of the “lower” classes, including some who were physically or mentally disabled. Particularly significant is the way he represents them such as to give them a dignified and more complex presence in a context that one would expect them to be marginalized.
The lack of an apostrophe in the title of my painting “The Spinners Center” allows for two possible meanings, meanings which are alluded to by the two Spanish titles. The double meaning plays into the idea that Temma is both 1) herself as the subject and 2) playing a role in a work with a “bigger” subject. On the one hand the title "El Centro de la Persona que hace Girar" translates as “The Spinner’s Center”, that is the center of the one who spins: centering the painting’s significance in the one depicted (who does indeed appear to be spinning). On the other hand "El Centro de 'Las Hilanderas'" (The Center of “The Spinners) references the painting by Velázquez that we have been considering. Specifically it points to the woman in the red skirt who is at the center of that painting. This shadowed figure seems relatively inactive: perhaps she is carding the wool that is to be spun. I find myself drawn to the gesture of her arm reaching towards the floor and the slight turn of her head–as if turning towards the drama in the back room. She seems to exist between the two worlds: on the margins of both yet somehow centering them. In that sense I find her to be much like Temma.