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- The Spanish intelligently
used palace dwarfs to provide care for their royal children. It makes
perfect sense as they are similar in size which has many advantages and
yet one is an adult and one is a child.
- Who is this dwarf in Prince
Baltasar Carlos with a Dwarf ? Is the dwarf male or female? Most books
identify the dwarf as male. But
some identify the dwarf as female (both Brown and Hobhouse). If the
dwarf is male, the identity of Lezcano has been suggested.
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- Jose Gudiol has the
dwarf as "unidentified dwarf" in the
discussion of the painting Prince Baltasar Carlos
With A Dwarf, 1629-1646-1631 on page 141, but on page 204 under the
discussion of the painting portrait Franciso Lezcano,
also known as "Nino de Vallecas", circa 1636-1644, 42 1/8" by
32 3/4 inches, Madrid: Prado Museum, states that he (male)"was buffoon to Prince Baltasar Carlos and
died in 1649 still comparatively young to judge by the age he appears
to be in his portrait (Figs. 156 & 157)" and "whom Moreno Villa,
(José Moreno Villa: Locos, enanos, negros y
ninos palaciegos.. Mexico, 1939.) in my opinion rightly
, has identified as the dwarf who appears, looking a few years younger
in the foreground of the portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos painted in
1631. (Figure 101)". In other words the male
dwarf is Franciso Lezcano, also
known as "Nino de Vallecas" or "Lezcanillor" or "el enano vizcaino". (Prado
notes, Room XIV. Velazquez and Mazo). Franciso Lezcano, was
a native of Vizcaya and was in service to the Prince Carlos since 1634,
he marched to Saragossa in 1644, "the same year in which this portrait
would have been painted" "He was absent from the court in 1645 and
1648, and died one year after his return to the court in 1649." He was
banished from the court because he "invoked royal displeasure."(M.
Salinger)
-
- The palette in the
portrait uses a vast range of greens. I do not agree with the Prado
notes that suggest the "sketchy brushwork indicates that Velazquez
wished to blur the dwarf's facial expression." I think the looser
brushwork was a choice of the artist and set the exact correct tone for
the character he was portraying. Note that the brushwork on the face
and in the collar of dwarf "Calabazas" Madrid: Prado Museum, is even
more "brushy". At times Velazquez painted with a loosen end of a bamboo
pole for effect, as he did on a visit to Rome. Salinger (Velazquez, 1969,page 24)
writes: "The limpid beauty of color and the breath-taking freedom of
the paint proclaim that Velazquez' art, quickened by the experiences of
his Italian voyage, has now reached its full maturity."
Nor do I agree with Jonathan Brown, who suggest on
page154 that "the veiled but vacant expression of the eyes make a
telling portrayal of a creature seemingly as deformed in mind as in
body." Margaretta Salinger of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York ( Velazquez-Fautless painter of kings,
peasants, and buffoons, pub. by Abrams
1969- Library of Congress Catalog #: 69-14764) also writes of
Lezcano's " beclouded brain", quote from page 14 (Velazquez,
1969): "With wonderfully loose, easy brushwork Velazquez has
depicted the sad creature perched on a rock in a vague mountain
landscape, his beclouded brain symbolized by the blackness of the cliff
against which his uncoordinated small body is posed." Why should being
deformed in one's body, or disabled, make the mind less sharp? Dwarf
Lezcano's mind and those of the other dwarfs could have been very
sharp. If not, why would the royal family trust their own children and
the heir to the throne with them.
-
- Jonathan Brown's book on
Velazquez in footnote 31, from page 83 identifies the dwarf as a female.
- "Camon Aznar (Velazquez, I,
of two volumes, Madrid , 1964, page 437) is probably correct
in identifying the dwarf as female, but there is still some room for
doubt." And Janet Hobhouse (Power and flesh, Artnews
magazine, November 1989, page 115), : "-in which an
elegantly dressed female dwarf looks
anxiously toward her placid infant future sovereign."
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-
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Mini
genealogy notes on Prince Baltasar {a.k.a. Baltazar}
Carlos Hapsburg and Franciso Lezcano
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Prince Baltasar Carlos, also known as: Baltasar Carlos Hapsburg,
born:
October 17, 1629 in Madrid, Spain;or born Autumn
(September/October/November?) of 1629(just after Velazquez sailed for
Italy)
died:
March 9, 1646 in Zaragoza, Spain, buried: Spain
Father: King Philip IV of Spain, a.k.a.Filipe IV Hapsburg,a.k.a. Philip IV Habsburg b: April
8, 1605 in Valladolid m: November 25, 1615 in
Bordeaux, France d: September 17, 1665 in Madrid, Spain
Mother: Isabelle de Bourbon, a.k.a.
Elizabeth de Bourbon, born: November 22, 1602 died: October 6, 1644 in
Madrid, Spain. Note: Philip remarried before
1651 to Mariana of Austria (mother of of i.Infanta Margarita Teresa (V.
painted 1654) ii.Prince Felipe Prosper (1659 V. portrait) and
iii.Charles II)
Sister by same mother Isabelle who died when she was only age 6:
Maria Teresa, born 1638, later she wed Louis XIV of France, she was age
22 on her wedding date. Marie-Therese Habsburg
born: September 20, 1638 in Madrid, Spain died: July 30, 1683 in
Versailles, France
Painted by Velazquez after 1629, on his return after his trip to Italy, the
prince then was age 1 year and 4 months. The equestrian portrait in
Prado, Baltasar Carlos was age 5 or 6.
More genealogy
information:
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Franciso Lezcano,
born:
before 1629 in Vizcaya, Spain, or de Vallecas,
or "Lezcanillor" or "el enano vizcaino"
died:1649
Father:?
Mother:?
occupation: served court in :beginning in 1634/
absent from court 1645-1648
Painted by Velazquez- 1636-1642 for Torre de la Parada
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A PART OF 
1. 
4.(1989) A Dwarf
& A Prince Echo Figures 
(curtain cuts diagonally across
center) 
With 2 batches of extended-edge
paper works totaling 6.- SEE ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH OF STUDIO::
or
take me to the Breda lead in page
Updated and LOL:
April 7, 2007, then June 13, 2009, January 8,
2014, remove report May 9, 2014
