Las Hilanderas, also known as “The Fable of Aracne” is a large oil on canvas painting, which measure is 220cm x 289cm (current measurement after alterations made as a consequence of being damaged on a fire) created by the Spanish artist Diego Velazquez between 1655 and 1660.
This landscaped work of art is one of Velazquez´s latest baroque genre paintings, being also one of his more mysterious and interesting compositions. Las Hilanderas was initially interpreted as an everyday life scene, where, as we can observe, five ladies are situated in the foreground, spinning and weaving the wool to create tapestries, while another five women are positioned, almost symmetrically to the front ones, in the background.
As a matter of fact, it is in that…show more content… The movement effect is mainly obtained by the amount of diagonals used, as for instance, the spinning wheel, the body posture of the main women in the front, the ladder, the directed light beam coming from the right in the foreground and from the left of the dome in the background area.
In addition, the movement sensation should be pointed out, as it is splendidly captured for example, in the spinning wheel, which seems to be spinning rapidly so that the wheel spokes can not be seen, and also in the spinner highlighted on white clothes, whose hand looks to have six fingers because of such a fast movement while threading.
The painterly style shown on this composition stands out with Velazquez´s short and loose brushstrokes, where, in the majority of the picture, defined contours are not visible (those can be seen on the most contrasted elements) but nevertheless, the sfumato technique is quite well used blending edges and forms between