Portrait of Sebastián de Morra

Sebastián de Morra was a dwarf at the court of Philip the Fourth of Spain, one of a number of little people kept at the palace partly as companions, partly as entertainment. Velázquez, the king's painter, portrayed several of them, and he did something that was rare for the time. He gave them full seriousness. Morra sits directly on the ground, filling the frame, dressed in a fine dark suit with expensive lace at the collar, his fists resting on his knees. He looks straight out at you, level and unsmiling, and holds the gaze. The painting was originally oval. When fire tore through the old royal palace in Madrid in 1734, the canvas seems to have been cut down to rescue it, which is why its corners feel so tight around him now.