The Big Empty. A New Interpretation of Velazquez's so-called La Mulata

Krass, Urte (29 January 2021). The Big Empty. A New Interpretation of Velazquez's so-called La Mulata (Unpublished). In: KHI 2021+ Lecture Series. Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut (via zoom). 29. January 2021.

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Velázquez's painting featuring a black kitchen maid standing among pots, plates, and pitchers is famously infused with ambiguity. The figure and her surroundings, which include an image-in-the-image of the Supper at Emmaus, visually and thematically interweave with one another in multiple ways that set up a series of subtle and elusive pictorial dialogues. The bodegón curiously appears to turn the Emmaus scene inside-out, emptying the biblical table in a contemporary setting. This paper interrogates these ambiguities, focusing on the painting's protagonist, the so-called mulata. It proposes a new interpretation of the work by delving into the identity of the maid and the insistent emptiness of her kitchen vessels within the specific context of the ongoing Spanish inquisition.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Art History 06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Art History > Recent and Modern Art History
UniBE Contributor:	Krass, Urte Inga
Subjects:	700 Arts 700 Arts > 750 Painting 700 Arts > 760 Graphic arts
Language:	English
Submitter:	Urte Inga Krass
Date Deposited:	03 Feb 2021 07:43
Last Modified:	26 Apr 2024 11:50
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/151454