possibly the painting best-loved by other painters ... Velazquez's Las Meninas ... Picasso almost went mad trying to perform a kind of stylistic autopsy to discover its secrets ... richard hamilton took a more delicately considered look ... and i think he mixed his response to picasso with respect and good-natured derision ...

the original was painted c1656/1657

picasso had already known the painting for forty or fifty years before he went on his LAS MENINAS binge in 1957 ... some of his small "re-constructions" in the Picasso Museum in Barcelona are full of energy ...  he tries to distil some of Velazquez's subtle magic ... but i doubt if he was pleased with the outcome

... and i'm not sure that he helps us to see velazquez in a new way ... not that he wanted to ...

 

richard hamilton's response to Picasso's confusion deserves close examination ... i'm not sure where parody begins and pastiche ends ... hamilton replaces velazquez the man desperate for honours with picasso the communist casting a cold eye on wealth and privelege ... but when you look at the individual figures hamilton drew then you see how each is a skilful and sensitive re-invention of picasso's many different styles ... AND he's also chosen to rival Picasso's skills as a print-maker ... Hurrah !

The Tate Gallery have a well-written account of Hamilton's project written by Elizabeth Manchester who points out that Hamilton's engagement with Picasso & Velazquez continued well over thirty years.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-picassos-meninas-p07659