from wikipedia
"
The elusiveness of
Las Meninas, according to Dawson Carr, "suggests that art, and life, are an illusion". The relationship between illusion and reality were central concerns in Spanish culture during the 17th century, figuring largely in
Don Quixote: the best-known work of
Spanish Baroque literature. In this respect,
Calderón de la Barca's poem
Life is a Dream is commonly seen as the literary equivalent of Velázquez's painting:
What is a life? A frenzy. What is life?
A shadow, an illusion, and a sham.
The greatest good is small; all life, it seams
Is just a dream, and even dreams are dreams"