Original painting, overlaid for comparison

Las Meninas

Velázquez, 1656 · 318 × 276 cm · Museo del Prado. Rebuilt in metres from the canvas, with four theories of how it was painted. All paintings

Walk: drag to look, W A S D to move, Q E for height, Shift to run.

How was it painted?

As paintedThe room alone, seen from the viewer's position. The king and queen stand where we standThe traditional reading. Ghost royals at the camera, and the mirror's sightline tested against them. The mirror reflects the canvasSnyder and Cohen. The royals appear because their portrait is on the easel. Switch to path traced to watch the mirror show it. Painted from a large mirrorThe room we see is a reflection. The real studio sits behind the viewer, mirrored through a big glass at the picture plane.

Rendering

Fast preview Path traced

Path tracing gathers light bounces over time, and turns the small mirror into a real mirror. Samples: 0

Bounces5

Light

Azimuth Elevation Intensity Softness Window glow Doorway glow Exposure Fill (preview) Show light position

How deep is the room?

A single painting cannot say how far away the viewer stands. Changing the viewing distance stretches the room in depth while the view from the viewer's eye stays identical.

Viewing dist.

Check against the painting

At Viewer's eye the render sits exactly under the original. Fade it in to see where the model and canvas agree.

Overlay Difference blend Floor grid (0.5 m) Measure: click two points

How it was measured

Canvas	276 × 318 cm
Reference scale	0.159 cm / px
Vanishing point	col 967, row 1154
Eye height	1.12 m
Focal length	1750 px (assumed)
Viewing distance	2.78 m
Floor point depth	f · h / (row − horizon)

The vanishing point is where the right wall and ceiling lines meet, in the doorway. Floor depths use the hems of the dresses and the dog. Focal length cannot be measured from one vanishing point, so it is an assumption and the slider above shows what it changes.

Checks that were not fitted

Two ceiling lamps, height	3.38 m and 3.38 m
Two ceiling lamps, side offset	−1.07 m, −1.05 m
Nieto's step	0.11 m
Doorway	0.64 × 1.82 m
Mirror	0.84 × 1.10 m
Back pictures, width	1.85 m, 1.87 m
Infanta's height	1.21 m
Hanging lamps' line	points at the doorway

The lamps are the best test. Each lamp was placed by a different pixel pair, and the model returns the same height and the same side offset for both. Doorway, mirror and picture sizes are all plausible for a 17th century palace room.

Confidence

Measured Vanishing point, lamps, doorway, mirror, back pictures, floor positions from skirt hems.

Inferred Viewing distance, back wall depth (8 m), camera height, the right wall and its windows, the size of the canvas.

Invented Left wall, rear sides of figures, hidden legs, the stairwell, everything behind the viewer.

Open question. Taken at face value, Velázquez comes out about 1.5 m tall. Either he is painted taller than the perspective allows, or his feet sit higher than the floor plane assumed here. The same stretch shows in the figures at the back. Painters of the period often adjusted scale for dignity.