regarding the periphery

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This is a detail of a painting by Diego Rodríguez de Velázquez in the Art Institute of Chicago. It just occurred to me that the gestural expression of her head is similar to the the photowork of Temma that I posted a couple days ago. More significant is the similar way in which that turning of the head seems to imply both an internal reflection and a recognition of something on the periphery. There is a another, very similar painting by Velázquez that includes a scene in the background on the left of the supper at Emmaus. That subject seems to imply that the young woman's gesture is one of recognizing who it is that is at the table. The composition of this painting echoes the structure of Las hilanderas by placing those who would typically be regarded as of marginal importance as the primary subject in relation to the "important" subject which is relegated to a room in the background. These works are among many in which this court painter made a central (if sometimes subtle) subject of regarding those on the periphery; thus posing questions to the conventions of pictorial hierarchy of the day.

 

Done