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EXTERNAL history.Considered along with LAS MENINAS to be one of the most important masterpieces of DIEGO DE VELAZQUUEZ ,as if final perido,this metological scene despits Minerras dispute with Arachne over weaving abilities.Traditionally cosidered to represent women working at the tapestry workshop of Santa Isable but it now prored that it is mythological subject.It was in all likelihood painted around 1657.The title of "THE SPINNERS",as it ispopularly known,is a later invention and seems to have been inspired by the women who are spinning in the foregroundthey were workers in the Santa Isabel tapestry factory in Madrid.This Velazquez painting, considered for a long represent a generic theme,actually hides the depiction of a mythological theme draped in the everyday undertaking of a tapstry workshop.In the mid forties,sepcialists refused to interpet it as a simple every day scen.Their doubt were clarified when reearcher Maria Luisa Caturla brought to light aninventory in which an unknowed VelazquezsFable of Arachae was mentioned,owned by huntsman to King Philip 4th,Don Pedro de Arcc.One of the problems that hindired the identification of the subject lay in the fact that the work did not belong to collections and documentary information existed about it.INTERNAL HISTORYThe Fable of Archa,as related in Ovids Metamorphoese,tells how Minerva,goddess of the guiles and of war,competes with Arachne,famous for her skill in spinning in weaving a tapestry.The young spinner was insolent abundant to prevent in her work one of the love advantures of the goddess father Jove,and by way of punishment,she was transformed into a spider.ICONOGRAPHY Even so,Velazquez had used Baroque recourse of inserting a picture within a picture since he was a youngman, and he linked to reverse the order of important of the story(i.e putting the trivial forward and the original behind) This public opinion poll was added onto it in the 18th century,on the upper part and both side s.It is not know if this aws done to restore it to its original state (it was thought to have suffered molest in the Alcazar fire of 1734) or if it was simply and attempt to complete the scene to make it larger.Certain scholar say it is an Apology of fine arts,intended to show the superiority of the art of painting over the hand crafts, while others see it a Political Allegory after Ripas Iconology.TECHNIQUEThe Spinning wheels turns rapidily showing the loose Velazquez technique.The canvas was probable damaaged by the fire in the Alcazar(1734) and an upper s