Il buffone Barbarroja

At the court of Philip the Fourth of Spain, Velazquez was set to paint not only the royal family but the palace jesters, and he gave them the same steady, serious attention. This one was a buffoon named Cristobal de Castaneda, nicknamed Barbarroja, or Redbeard, after a famous Ottoman sea captain. To match the name he is dressed up as a Turkish soldier in a red robe and turban, gripping a sword in one hand and its scabbard in the other, mid-bluster. At court he played Barbarossa in comic performances. Velazquez never finished the picture. The robe and the legs are only roughly laid in, and you can see the paint thin out where his work on it simply stopped.