Shop art print and framed art The Spinners by Diego Vélasquez

The Legend of Arachne, popularly known as The Spinners (las Hilanderas), is the title of a picture painted by Diego Velázquez around 1657 as part of the Baroque movement. It can be seen at the Prado Museum in Madrid. Because of its uncertain dating and the great difficulty that historians and iconographers have had over the years in identifying precise scenes in it, Les Fileuses has remained a relatively unknown painting in the face of the success of Les Ménines with the general public (which he surely followed very closely in his work). Nonetheless, along with Las Meninas and Venus in the Mirror, it is one of the painter's most ambitious and enigmatic works. The probable date of its creation has most often been established as between 1644 and 1656, and sometimes later (after Les Ménines according to Carl Justi and Aureliano de Beruete). The presence of the painting in the collection of Don Pedro de Arce, a close relative of King Philip IV, is attested as early as 1664, in an inventory entry that was lost for three centuries until it was published by Maria Luisa Caturla in 1948. The painting is listed under the title "The Legend of Arachne", and with its original measurements (167 × 250 cm). It underwent major additions in the eighteenth century, which are still present today, and it was only very recently, in 2007, that it was possible to see it again in its true dimensions, on the occasion of a temporary exhibition at the Prado Museum, using a special scenographic [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the baroque style.

 

Find the full description of The Spinners by Diego Vélasquez on Wikipedia.