Las Meninas is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist at the Spanish court of King Philip IV, and it hangs in Madrid's Prado. It shows a room in the royal palace where the five-year-old Infanta Margaret Theresa stands among her attendants, while Velázquez himself paints a large canvas at the left. The mirror on the back wall reflects the king and queen, who seem to stand where the viewer is, so the viewer becomes part of the scene. Because the painting leaves unclear what is being painted and who is being observed, it has become a central text for debates about perception, representation and the status of the artist. The Italian painter Luca Giordano called it the theology of painting.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.