The Spinners

I do believe that some artists place things in paintings for particular reasons - the ladder is fading into the darkness for a reason, the cat at the women's feet has great significance, etc. But sometimes I wonder if when they paint, some artists say, "I will place this object here just to mess with my viewers because it doesn't actually mean anything!"

I do hope Mr. Velasquez is not one of those artists.

Because of the light in the back, my gaze is immediately drawn to the well-dressed women admiring the tapestries at the back - which I would presume is the one Athena wove, since the spinenrs at the front of the painting wouldn't have wanted to incur the wrath of the goddess by hanging Arachne's as well. And because of the era of the painting, and the dress, I would say they wouldn't want to hang Arachne's tapestry out of superstition, because of the story passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter over and over again as the years passed. They sit spinning, gossiping in whispers about secrets the fancy ladies in the back know nothing of.

But when I look at the tapestry itself, I see a different story. I rather think that the image woven is of Athena cursing Arachne. The figure on the left appears to be wearing a helmet, something that the goddess is commonly depicted wearing. And if that be the case, I would say that the spinners deliberately spun that tapestry themselves and hung it for all to see as a warning against pride. Maybe the pride of the rich who come to view the commoner's beautiful work?

Maybe the cat playing with the ball of string indicates that we were all being toyed with by a higher power. Maybe the ladder going into the darkness symbolizes that we should only reach so high.

I love paintings. There's so many layered meanings in them. Thank you, Pascaline de Mesmay, for showing me that.