-
- 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.
-
- 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."
-
-
Mini genealogy notes on Prince Baltasar {a.k.a. Baltazar}
Carlos Hapsburg and Franciso Lezcano
| 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.
|
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 |
|
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
