Angel or demon: Velazquez's 'Lady with a Fan' as Calderon's 'La Dama Duende'

Diego de Velazquez's Lady with a Fan has been called the painting that best represents both the artist and the Spain of his era. Its subject embodies the polarities long identified with the nature of womankind: the angelic and the demonic. Furthermore, the mysterious subject may represent Angela, the multifaceted protagonist of La Dama Duende, a contemporaneous play by Calderon de la Barca. That the sitter may have been Marie de Rohan, a French duchess known to have been painted by Velazquez, adds another dimension to speculations concerning the subject of Lady with a Fan. This Abstract of ninety-five words is approved as to form and content.