ABSTRACT
In 1656 when Diego Velasquez painted his masterpiece, Las Meninas, it was a revolutionary leap to make a self-referencing meta-image about the act of representation. It is a painting that now comes with an enormous bibliography; it is a node for discussions of power and authority, the role of the artist and the act of representation itself, and the modernist fracturing of point of view, among other things. This chapter uses these two paintings as analytical tools for understanding a cultural shift that is occurring now, and the metaphor of painting in general for bringing diverse phenomena into conversation about how these changes may affect the law. Law, because it is always embodied in real human conflict, real human problems, and it has outcomes that can absolutely influence people's lives, is a semiotic enterprise that remains grounded.
