What is special about the painting Las Meninas?

Question

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Answer 1

The point of view it is painted from (the scene is seen through the eyes of the subject of the painting).

Answer 2

This is an extraordinary painting on many levels and although such a lot is known not everyone agrees with the meaning and why it was painted . All the identities of the people in the picture are known and even the room it was painted in. ( i have all this in a book i think ..let me know if you want this . )
As you can see it is velazquez painting the king and queewn . seen in the mirror , as the little infanta Margarita Maria is watching atended by her meinas ( handmaidens)
this is a type of painting called an open composition where we the viewer are watching a scene that is partly in the picture frame and things are going on that we cannot see.
Some people think that velazquez working at his canvas surrounded by the royal family makes him part of this social world and not just an artisan painter . He was very socially ambitious and although i don¨t think he was directly from a military family did have certain links in his family which made it possible for him to gain aristocrat status ( all the modern thing of arts for arts sake etc does not really work when you look closely at the great masters ...they were almost all driven by money and ambition and werre i suppose basically human !!)
the king and queen are reflected off Velazquez' canvas in the mirror . this has been scientifically proven . But the King and quenn may still be there and maybe are about to leave as the man opens the door and the dwarf wakes the royal dog with his foot which has been sleeping while the painting has been going on.
Whistlers painting of a little girl has been likened to this as she stares out of the picture in the same manner as my daughter calls ' the little girl with the sticked out dress '.. the Infanta ... I am sorry i have forgotton the name of it but it is one of Whistlers most fanous