Las Meninas (Velazquez) 1957

Pablo Picasso created this version of Las Meninas using oil on canvas. Here, the echoes of courtly life are shattered into sharp angles and vibrant colors. Note the recurring motif of the gaze, fragmented yet persistent. The eyes, windows to the soul, are multiplied and distorted, reflecting a world seen from multiple perspectives. This fragmentation evokes the ancient concept of the "poly-ophtalmic" god, whose many eyes see all. The figures, though abstracted, still carry the weight of their historical counterparts. The Infanta Margarita, central to Velázquez's original, reappears as a collection of geometric shapes, a ghostly presence reminding us of the cyclical nature of power and representation. Picasso's cubist lens shows how historical archetypes resurface in new forms, transformed yet still imbued with their original psychic charge, a potent and unsettling reminder of our shared cultural memory.