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Las Meninas
painting by Diego Velazquez / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Las Meninas is an oil painting by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. The painting hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the capital of Spain. It was painted in 1656.
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The word “Menina” means “lady-in-waiting” or “Maid of Honour”, i.e. a girl who serves in a royal court. There is a lot of detail in the painting, and more has been written about it than about almost any other Western painting because it is quite complicated. For example: people do not always agree about who is looking at whom and why they are standing there.