Foucault’s Analysis and Interdisciplinary Perspective on Velázquez's Painting Las Meninas

This paper examines Michel Foucault's interpretation of Diego Velázquez's painting Las Meninas (1656) which he uses to illustrate shifts in épistémès throughout history. After analyzing Foucault's interpretation, I extended his approach by employing an interdisciplinary perspective to relativize some of his concepts. The study incorporates various interdisciplinary methods, demonstrating that these approaches lead to a more profound understanding of the ontological, aesthetic, technical, psychological, and sociological dimensions of Velázquez's painting. This strategy demonstrates that artistic creations are dynamic and surpass simplistic dualistic frameworks, methodological relativism, and determinism. As a result, Las Meninas emerges as a self – referential artefact, continuously evolving in meaning through different epistemological and social frameworks.