Velázquez’s Las Meninas: much more than meets the eye

Michael Jacobs’s last book was an attempt to unlock the mysteries of a painting that had been a lifelong passion, Velázquez’s Las Meninas. In this extract he relates how it all started…• Read Ed Vulliamy on completing his dying friend’s last work hereThe envelope, postmarked Madrid, torn slightly on the lefthand corner, released, on opening, the pieces of a puzzle. “A jigsaw postcard,” explained a handwritten note inserted amidst the scrambled contents. “I found this in the gift