Enrique el peludo, Pedro el loco y Amón el enano

This triple portrait records three people kept at the court of the Farnese in Parma at the close of the 16th century. On the left is Arrigo, a man born with hair covering his whole face and body, brought to Europe from the Canary Islands; next to him a court jester known as Pietro; and a small dwarf. Renaissance courts collected such people as living curiosities, shown off alongside monkeys, parrots and dogs, several of which appear here around them. What is striking is how Agostino Carracci paints the three: steadily and attentively, meeting their eyes, rather than mocking them. The picture later entered the great Farnese collection that now forms the core of the Capodimonte museum in Naples.