rs on the Infanta Maragarita, a princess of the ruling house. She is surrounded by the ladies-in-waiting of the title along with her favorite dwarves and a large dog that we may also assume is one of her favorite companions. Standing behind these figures in the foreground are a duenna - a combination of chaperone and nurse - as well as a male bodyguard. Behind these two stands a man in a brightly lit doorway.
Velazquez has used both light and composition to designate the power relationships that exist among these various figures. For example, although Margarita is the smallest figure in the painting, she is clearly the central character of this narrative (Schmitter 257). All of the movement in the painting seems to swirl around her, especially that of the two maids who both lean inwards to her, as if they were tipping forward into space, saved from falling only by the steadfastness that the princess gives to their forms.
The dwarves occupy the forward-most space in the painting, but our eyes tend not to linger on them. Velazquez, without seeming to be cruel, has emphasized their ugliness by cloaking them in darkness, as if they were not fit to be seen - in direct contrast to the light that illuminates the infanta, who stands as aware of her
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