LCMA

@lcma · 06 Aug 2022

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The Spinners

#history It is baroque theater on a stage (actually several) meticulously composed by an extraterrestrial Velázquez who wants to tell us the fable of Arachne from another, more intellectual and ingenious perspective, in the manner of the great brains of the Spanish Golden Age.

Arachne, according to Ovid, was a young woman who weaved so well that she bragged about it all the time and even went around saying that she did it better than the goddess Athena. Fed up with so much chuleria, Athena disguised herself as an old woman and challenged her to a contest to make the best tapestry and the presumptuous Arachne couldn't think of a better subject than representing the infidelities of the gods. Athena, offended, took off her disguise and decided to settle the matter by turning her into a spider. That's why spiders weave so well.

Velázquez takes advantage of this story to reflect on creation and represents Arachne's workshop with the young artist masterfully weaving (with her back to the right) and the goddess disguised as an old woman on the left. We know it's her because of the adolescent leg she shows us.