The Blue Astronomer I and II - The Boxer

The princess, the Infanta Margarita in the painting Las Meninas by Diego Velasquez stands at the center of the painting. A psychological and historical signification lies like a palimpsest over her image. Historically, the five-year-old girl is in effect an item to be bartered off to the highest bidder, finally she was married to her uncle in what became known as the war of Spanish Succession.

In my version, I invent a new back story, the princess is a boxer, the title which she holds as royalty has mutated onto her boxing gloves. She is no longer the accommodating child but a fighter, a bull, animal fur grows from her back, parting her elaborate dress.  Her arena is not the court of Philip IV of Spain but a boxing ring in which she is preparing to defend herself.