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The Spinners (The Fable of Arachne)
Diego Velázquez · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599–1660)
- Date
- c. 1655–1660
- Dimensions
- 167 x 252 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
The Spinners seems at first to show women at work in the royal tapestry workshop in Madrid. But in the brightly lit alcove at the back, Velázquez hides a myth: the contest between the goddess Athena and the mortal weaver Arachne, who dared to challenge her.
A closer look
In the shadowy foreground, workers spin and card wool; an old woman at the left works a spinning wheel whose spokes blur with motion, one of the earliest attempts to paint movement. A young woman on the right, seen from behind with her bare neck lit by sunlight, winds yarn. Behind them, elegant ladies examine a tapestry, before which Athena in a helmet raises her arm against Arachne. In Ovid's story, the goddess turns Arachne into a spider. The painting plays on the relationship between craft and art, reality and myth.
More by Diego Velázquez
In this gallery
The Surrender of Breda
Portrait of Innocent X
Las Meninas
Old Woman Frying Eggs
The Rokeby Venus (The Toilet of Venus)
Portrait of Juan de Pareja