Buffoon with books, formerly known as portrait of "el Primo"

Velázquez painted this around 1644, during a military campaign. The king, Philip IV, had marched to Aragón to face a revolt, and his painter went with the court, working in the town of Fraga. This sitter was long identified as a court jester nicknamed el Primo, though the museum now simply calls him the buffoon with books and leaves the name open. What is certain is the pile of learning around him. He sits on the ground turning an enormous open book across his knees, more volumes stacked beside him, a little pot of glue ready for loose pages. Whatever his role at court, Velázquez gives him the frown of a man deep in his reading, and paints his watchful face with the same seriousness he gave to kings. The mountain landscape opening behind him is handled in a few swift strokes.