Pablo de Valladolid

Velázquez painted several portraits of court jesters and dwarves, and of physically or mentally disabled people. He always portrayed them with great dignity. The originality of this picture lies in the fact that it contains nothing that enables us to place the figure in a context. Only the shadow of his legs provides any perspective. The picture was one of Manet’s favourites, and he tried to emulate it in his painting The Young Flautist, which hangs in the Museé D’Orsay in Paris.


(c) (R) 2013, MUSMon com S.L.
Text (a) Catalina Serrano Romero
English translation (a) Thisbe Burns