Review: Mystery tale is interwoven with characters from a world-famous painting

The joy of reading fiction based on historical facts is the rabbit hole of curiosity into which the reader disappears. Author Andrea Hotere, with a strong familial involvement in art – her father is the painter Ralph Hotere – and training in history and investigative journalism, has produced just such a story in her dual-timeline historical mystery debut.

The artistic centre of The Vanishing Point is Las Meninas, painted by Diego Velázquez in 1656 and one of the most analysed paintings of all time. Now held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, it was painted by Velázquez during his time employed as the court painter and King’s chamberlain, giving him a unique insight into the royal affairs of King Philip IV of Spain. The painting challenges the accepted genre of the time, that of straight portraiture. While the forefront of the painting portrays and artfully highlights the five-year-old Infanta Margarita, fourth child of the King, she is surrounded by several figures, including ladies-in-waiting (the meninas of the title), a nun and a dog. In one corner stands Velázquez himself, poised at the easel, while the wall above him pays shadowed homage to reproductions of classic paintings. A mirror on the wall behind displays images of the King and Queen. Are the couple reflected in a mirror as they look on, or is the mirror a reflection of the painting on the easel? Behind them all stands José De Nieto, the Queen’s chamberlain, on a staircase. Leaving or arriving? Observing or scheming?

Las Meninas is seen by many as a dialogue between the artist and the viewer, and observers have been posing questions for centuries. Velázquez himself said, "I would rather be an ordinary painter from life than the world’s greatest copyist." Are there hidden secrets in this painting from life? Pablo Picasso painted dozens of versions of Las Meninas in an attempt to understand its elements.

Andrea Hotere: her protagonist is on a hunt against dark forces. Photo / Getty Images

The artistic setting, and the interest in Picasso’s interpretations, are the springboard for the novel’s plot. Interwoven with the fictionalised machinations of the 17th-century court is the contemporary story of Alex Johns, a trainee intern at London’s Courtauld Institute of Art. Shown the painting as a child, Alex has always felt a strong connection with Margarita. Following in the footsteps of her late mother, who was killed in a car accident while following her own interest in the painting, Alex challenges expert denial of the existence of "curses" suggested in the painting. She, in turn, is given a deadline to prove her beliefs with the provision of concrete evidence.

This propels Alex on a hunt against dark forces that attempt to change and conceal history, using the cryptic clues her mother left behind. A race across Europe includes visits to professors of classics, cloistered nuns and long-estranged family members, a potpourri of characters as diverse as those depicted in the painting.

The two stories balance and flow well with links between characters and geographical locations. While many characters are based on real-life people from the painting’s era, others are imagined so as to allow the author to add intrigue and gossip. Settings are mirrored, words reach across the centuries and flames in the long-gone Alcázar (the royal palace) leap dramatically into Alex’s narrative. Satisfyingly, Margarita, the "life force" of the painting, is realistically portrayed both inwardly and historically.

But exciting and adventurous as the modern-day plot is, Las Meninas is the star. It is "a living portrait" that "represents the dead to the living, many centuries later". Hotere has deftly brought it to life, adding depth and dimension to its many layers.