The Dwarf Francisco Lezcano, "El Niño de Vallecas"

Diego Velázquez

Oil on canvas

Museo del Prado

In this oil on canvas, Diego Velázquez portrays Francisco Lezcano, a jester at the court of Philip IV of Spain, seated informally in an outdoor setting with a rocky crag behind him and a mountainous landscape receding to the horizon. Dressed in green and holding what appears to be a pack of playing cards, Lezcano gazes directly at the viewer with an expression that is at once candid and disarming. Velázquez, born in Seville in 1599 and active as court painter in Madrid until his death in 1660, executed the work with characteristically loose, fluid brushwork in which broad strokes and quick touches of paint build form and atmosphere with extraordinary economy. Originally produced for the Torre de la Parada, the royal hunting lodge near Madrid, the painting stands as one of the most psychologically penetrating portraits in the Western Baroque tradition.