The Meninas from Thebes
a curious journey through the Prado Museum
Velázquez knew exactly where Thebes was, south of Egypt along the Nile River, close to Nubia. He had painted saint Paul of Thebes, the first hermit, together with San Anthony the Great and he knew that Paul made his own clothes with the leaves of the palm tree that grew in front of his cave because he painted it covertly. But he deliberately omitted any reference to Ancient Egypt, not even to a desert. In fact, he probably knew that many of these hermits' caves were ancient tombs of pharaohs and nobles, filled with paintings, reliefs, and hieroglyphics. Velázquez, in his extensive library, had a treatise on how the Romans transported the obelisks from Egypt. He painted these saints on the return from his first trip to Rome, in 1634, and the landscape is the Sierra de Guadarrama in Madrid. We must take into account that in Rome there are 13 obelisks, one in Saint Peter´s Square and also a pyramid of the roman times, Cestius pyramid, inspired by the Nubian pyramids.
Saint Anthony, who was chased around by the demons, also weaved and when he was not meditating, he made baskets and mats. He founded the first monastic order of Christianity and created the prayer cord, the Komboskini, whose knot the Virgin taught him how to do, it´s so tight not even the devil himself is able to undo.
Velázquez holds his brush at exactly 60º, thus forming a hexagram that surrounds Las Meninas. A geometry exercise. The 6-pointed star in the 17th century did not have such a direct reference to the Jewish people and the Star of David as today, perhaps its mystical part in relation with the Kabbalah, that started in Spain and the south of France in the XII and XIII centuries. Anyhow the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca, for example, which has one of the largest rose windows in European Gothic, it is in the shape of a hexagram. The seal of Solomon with its magical connotations could also be, we have the Monastery of El Escorial, which Velázquez was redecorating while painting Las Meninas. In the center of Solomon's seal, the cross of Tau, the cross of San Antonio Abad and written at each point of the star, Tetragrammaton, the name of God, which in this case has the name of a flower, Margarita. An exercise of Sacred Geometry.
The Penitent Magdalene, Pedro de Mena, 1664 (Prado Museum)
Isis Knot, 1500 a.C.
Metmuseum (NY)
Does Mary Magdalene have the Isis Knot tied at her waist?
Isis Knot, Metmuseum
Egypt circa 1500 BC
