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EXTERNAL history.Considered along with LAS MENINAS to be one of the almost important masterpieces of DIEGO DE VELAZQUUEZ ,as if final perido,this metological scene despits Minerras dispute with Arachne everyplace weaving abilities.Traditionally cosidered to represent women runing at the tapestry workshop of Santa Isable plainly it now prored that it is mythological subject.It was probably painted around 1657.The title of "THE SPINNERS",as it ispopularly known,is a later invention and seems to have been inspired by the women who are rotate in the foregroundthey were workers in the Santa Isabel tapestry factory in Madrid.This Velazquez painting, considered for a long represent a generic theme,actually hides the depiction of a mythological theme draped in the everyday labour of a tapstry workshop.In the mid(prenominal) forties,sepcialists refused to interpet it as a simple every day scen.Their doubt were smooth when reearcher Maria Luisa Caturla brought to light aninven tory in which an unknowed VelazquezsFable of Arachae was mentioned,owned by huntsman to King Philip 4th,Don Pedro de Arcc.One of the problems that hindired the identification of the subject lay in the fact that the work did not belong to collections and documentary information existed about it.INTERNAL HISTORYThe Fable of Archa,as related in Ovids Metamorphoese,tells how Minerva,goddess of the arts and of war,competes with Arachne,famous for her skill in spinning in weaving a tapestry.The young spinner was venturous enough to prevent in her work one of the love advantures of the goddess catch Jove,and by way of punishment,she was transformed into a spider.ICONOGRAPHY Even so,Velazquez had used churrigueresque recourse of inserting a picture within a picture since he was a youngman, and he linked to reverse the order of important of the story(i.e place the trivial forward and the fundamental behind) This canvas was added onto it in the 18th century,on the hurrying part and both sides.It is not know if this aws done to restore it to its accepted state (it was thought to have suffered damage in the Alcazar fire of 1734) or if it was simply and attempt to complete the scene to make it larger.Certain scholar interpret it is an Apology of fine arts,intended to show the superiority of the art of painting oer the hand crafts, while others see it a Political Allegory afterward Ripas Iconology.TECHNIQUEThe Spinning wheels turns rapidily showing the loose Velazquez technique.The canvas was verisimilar damaaged by the fire in the Alcazar(1734) and an upper s