Royal Bodyguard
Liz Danforth
The art concept for this card called for a bodyguard guarding royalty ("Royal Bodyguard), with a cool supporting game mechanic in which the bodyguard absorbs damage.
Liz Danforth's design idea for this card was to model it after Diego Velázquez's famous 1656 "Las Meninas" painting. Velázquez is the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. This painting's complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted. Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting. It has long been recognized as one of the most important paintings in Western art history.
Liz's approach to the card art design was to bring the bodyguard to the front to symbolize guarding the royal family. This is the first obvious change, and creates a bit of a humorous effect with La Infanta looking like she is giving him a side-eye expression.
The second adjustment is that in the back left where Velázquez had painted himself into the painting, Liz painted herself. She deliberately downplayed and shadowed it to de-emphasize it in the composition, and asked game-creator Erik Oloffson to move it to the edge in the final published card so as not to detract from the focus of the design.