In Diego Velázquez’s famous palace portrait of the royal family of King Philip IV, today hung in the Prado and known as Las Meninas, the menina (lady in waiting) María Agustina Sarmiento offers the Infanta Margarita a Tonalá búcaro. Paleness and amenorrhea were ideal images of female purity in the baroque. The Infanta was still a girl. We may assume the young lady wanted the royal heiress to drink aromatic water so as to heighten her paleness and perhaps delay menstrual discharge.
Búcaro and Las Meninas
Diego Velázquez, detail of Las Meninas with Tonalá búcaro (Prado Museum; public domain).
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra
Further reading
- Hamann, B.E. (2010) ‘The mirrors of Las Meninas: cochineal, silver, and clay’, Art Bulletin, 92 (1–2): 6–35.
- Seseña, N. (1991) ‘El búcaro de Las Meninas’, in Velázquez y el arte de su tiempo: V Jornadas de Arte (Madrid: Editorial Alpuerto), 38–49.
- Urutia, S., and J. de la Fuente (eds.) (1991) Tonalá: sol de barro (Mexico: Banco Cremi).
- de Vasconcellos Carolina, M. (1905) ‘Algumas palavras a respeito de púcaros de Portugal’, Bulletin Hispanique, 7 (2): 140–96.
