account published 50 years after velazquez' death, we know the scene is set in the royal palace at the alcazar in the royal painter's studio. velazquez had been given responsibility for decorating the palace and installing its paintings, including two by rubens we can see dimly hanging at the back of the painting. the same account identifies nearly everybody in the composition-- the 5-year-old princess, the infanta margarita, the maids of honor, the meninas themselves, courtiers and guards. by setting himself down amidst all this royal company, velazquez, decorated with the knightly cross of santiago, is staking out a claim to the nobility of his calling in a culture where a painter was no gentleman. the real subject of las meninas is not the royal princess, still less is it velazquez' social pretensions. the true subject is the art of painting itself. in the painting, velazquez shows us his whole box of tricks-- illusions of space, depth, and perspective. yet he always withholds from us the exact means by which he executes those extraordinary effects and illusions. las meninas really is a con