Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez
"The infanta Margarita is at the center of the picture, surrounded by two court ladies and a female dwarf. Directly above the infanta's head, on the back wall of the room, is a mirror hanging to the left of an open door, surrounded by dark paintings. Here, too, the mirror is placed at the center of the picture. Velázquez himself is standing on the left side of the painting, posing as the artist at his canvas, whose painted surface is facing away from the viewer. Opinions vary as to what the artist is painting or whether it's really a mirror that's hanging on the back wall, or another painting. If, however, it is indeed a mirror, then it's reflecting two figures standing outside the picture's borders. The pair are King Philip V. and his wife Marianne, at whose court Velázquez was engaged as court painter. Yet where exactly are they situated? Are they standing in front of the picture? Are they in the process of being painted by Velázquez, perhaps? If the royal couple is standing in front of the mirror, then they must be standing where the viewer is. Hence, the viewer takes on the role of the motif which the eyes of the artist, the infanta, and the remaining figures are all focussed on. An interplay between observation and "being observed" is initiated. The painting's viewer is simultaneously being viewed, and thus becomes conscious of his own act of observation."
I thought this could be an interesting reference for a portrait within a portrait within a portrait..
"For in it occurs an exact superimposition of the model's gaze as it is being painted, of the spectator's as he contemplates the painting, and of the painter's as he is composing his picture (not the one represented, but the one in front of us which we are discussing). These three 'observing' functions come together in a point exterior to the picture: that is, an ideal point in relation to what is represented but a perfectly real one too, since it is also the starting-point that makes the representation possible."
Excerpt from Las Meninas by Foucault
