“ACCOMMODATION IN THE ABYSS” AS A GAME OF REPRESENTATIONS: MISE EN ABYME IN D. VELASQUEZ’S “LAS MENINAS”

Bolshakova Anastasia Sergeevna

The article proposes an interpretation of Diego Velazquez's painting by the Spanish painter "Las Meninas" as a phenomenon of introspection, in which the observer (viewer contemplating the canvas) gets the opportunity to reconstruct the image of his Self, to look at it from a different angle. The concept of misanabim, a recursive artistic technique, literally translated as “accommodation in the abyss”, in this case is not “a picture in a picture”, but “a game in a game”. Velasquez's work is a process of creating a (self) representation, reminiscent of a psychotherapeutic session in which the artist who portrays himself is a doctor, and anyone looking at the work acts as a patient - it is a kind of game of escaping reality, a game controlled, guided. Control by the authorities (personified in the picture by the figure of the chamberlain-supervisor in the background), constant surveillance deprive the subject of identity, thereby making the free activity of the game relative.

Keywords:Game, misanabim, D. Velasquez "Las Meninas", self-image, self-representation, observation