El bufón don Juan de Austria

The man's real name is lost. He was a jester at the court of Philip IV, and someone there nicknamed him after Don John of Austria, the dashing commander who had smashed the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571, a victory Spain still celebrated every October. Velazquez plays the joke straight. He dresses the jester in a general's cloak, sets scattered armor and helmets at his feet, and paints a smoking sea battle far behind him, Lepanto itself. Yet the man leans on his commander's baton as though it were a cane keeping him upright. Velazquez painted him around 1632 with the same grave attention he gave the king, and the tired, knowing eyes are entirely the jester's own.