The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 16, 2025

An oil painting of a man with a light skin tone, dressed in all black with a white shirt collar. He is standing and holding a portrait of a woman in one hand and a white pinwheel in the other. He has a grin on his face and looks to the side.

Portrait of the Jester Calabazas

c. 1631–32
(Spanish, 1599–1660)
Spain, 17th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 199.3 x 133.1 x 12.7 cm (78 7/16 x 52 3/8 x 5 in.); Unframed: 175 x 106 cm (68 7/8 x 41 3/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1965.15
Location: 212 Baroque Painting and Sculpture

Did You Know?

Calabazas holds a wind-driven pinwheel and a miniature portrait of a woman, together suggesting the inconstancy of love.

Description

Calabazas, a jester in the court of King Philip IV of Spain, had physical and mental disabilities, a state that the artist emphasizes, rather than tries to hide. While the Spanish court prized and doted upon people with disabilities such as Calabazas, Velázquez transformed their depiction in portraiture. This startling work uses the format of the formal, full-length court portrait to present a type of person who was generally perceived as marginal at this point in history and profoundly humanizes him.
  • ca. 1631-32 - until at least 1808
    Royal Collections (Palacio del Beun Retiro, Madrid)
    - possibly 1863
    Private Collection (Great Britain)
    by 1867 - 1872
    Jean-Gilbert-Victor Fialin, Duc de Persigny, 1808-1872 (Paris, France) (sold, Hotel Drouot, Paris, April 4,1872, as "Le Fou," for 750 francs
    by 1881
    Maurice Cottier (died 1881), (Paris, France, and Château Cangé, Touraine.
    by 1906 - 1915
    Sir George Donaldson (1845-1925) London, England, and Brighton, England, sold to Herbert Frederick Cook, 1915.
    1915-1939
    Herbert Frederick Cook, later 3rd Baronet, 1868-1939 (Richmond, England), by inheritance to Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 1939.
    1939-
    Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th Baronet, 1907-1978 since 1956 (sold, Christie's, London, March 19, 1965, lot 104, through Thomas Agnew & Sons (London, England) to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
    1965-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • null
    Curtis, Charles Boyd. Velazquez and Murillo; A Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Works of Don Diego De Silva Velazquez and Bartolomé Estéban Murillo. London, United Kingdom: S. Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1883. Reproduced: p. 33, no. 75
    Justi, Carl, and A. H. Keane. Diego Velazquez and His Times. London, United Kingdom: H. Grevel & Co, 1889. Reproduced: p.438
    Lafond, Paul. "Des Portraits de fous, de nains et de phenomenes." La Revue de l'Art Ancien et Modern XI (January-June, 1902): 226-227. Mentioned: 226-227
    Brockwell, Maurice W. "The Cook Collection, Part III." Connoisseur L (January, 1918): 8. Reproduced: p. 8. pl. XXIII
    Moreno Villa, José. Velázquez. Madrid, Spain: Editorial "Saturnino Calleja", 1920. Mentioned: p. 38-40; Reproduced: p. 24
    Brock, Maurice W. "Calabacillas, the Buffoon." Connoisseur LIX (February, 1921): 116-121. Mentioned: p. 116, 119-120; Reproduced: 121
    Mayer, August L. Diego Velázquez. Berlin, Germany: Propyläen-Verlag, 1924. Mentioned: p. 74-75
    Salazar, Juan Allende. Velazquez; des meisters gemälde in 275 abbildungen. Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche verlags-anstalt, 1925. Reproduced: p. 30; Mentioned: p. 274
    Cook, Francis, Maurice W. Brockwell, and Herbert Frederick Cook. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart. London, United Kingdom: W. Heinemann, 1932. Reproduced: p. 59, no. 500, pl. XX
    Justi, Carl. Diego Velazquez und sein Jahrhundert. Zürich, Switzerland: Phaidon-verlag, 1933. Reproduced: p. 705, pl. 25
    Mayer, August L. Velazquez; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Pictures and Drawings. London, United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, Limited, 1936. Reproduced: p. 104, no. 445, pl. 149
    Mayer, August L. Velazquez. New York New York.: French Library of Fine Arts, French and European Publications, Inc, 1939. reproduced: p. 14
    Ferrari, , Enrique Lafuente, J. R. Carey, and Neil MacLaren. Velazquez. London, United Kingdom, : G. Allen & Unwin ltd, The Phaidon press, 1943. Reproduced: p. 19, pl. 32
    Trapier, Elizabeth du Gué. Velazquez. New York, New York: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1948. Reproduced: p. 115
    Justi, Carl, and Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño. Velázquez y su siglo. Madrid, Spain: Espasa-Calpe, 1953. Mentioned: p. 704-706; Reproduced: fig. 193
    Ortega y Gasset, José, Alfred E. Herzer, F. J. Sánchez Cantón, and C. David Ley. Velazquez. New York, New York: Random House, 1953. Reproduced: no. 67
    Pantorba, Bernardino de. La vida y la obra de Velázquez; estudio biográfico y crítico. Madrid, Spain: Compañía Bibliográfica Espanñola, 1955. Mentioned: p. 92-93; Reproduced: p. 141, no. 32
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    Museo del Prado. Museo del Prado: catálogo de las pinturas. Madrid, Spain: El Museo, 1963. Reproduced: p. 744, no. 1250
    Camón Aznar, José. Velázquez. Madrid, Spain: Espasa-Calpe, 1964. Reproduced: p. 611, 1004; vol. II
    "Year in Review 1965." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LII, no. 10 (November, 1965). Reproduced: cover
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 130 archive.org
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    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 510; Mentioned: p. 511-513
    Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio, Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, and Julián Gállego. Velázquez. New York, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. Reproduced: p. 20
    Garín Llombart, Felipe Vicente, and Salvador Salort Pons. Velázquez. Milano, Italy: Electa, 2001. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 196-199
    Tinterow, Gary, Geneviève Lacambre, and Deborah L. Roldán. Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. New York, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: p. 451, fig. 10.49
    Brown, Jonathan, and J. H. Elliott. A Palace for a King: The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003. Reperoduced: p. 141, fig. 94
    Museo del Prado, and Andrés Ubeda de los Cobos. Paintings for the Planet King: Philip IV and the Buen Retiro Palace. Madrid, Spain: Museo Nacional del Prado in association with Paul Holberton Pub, 2005. Mentioned: p. 88; Reproduced: p. 89, no. 8
    Smee, Sebastian. Lucian Freud, 1996-2005. London, United Kingdom: Jonathan Cape, 2005. Mentioned: p. 13-14; Reproduced: p. 28
    Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, New York: The Frick Collection, 2006. Mentioned: p. 44-47; Reproduced: no. 8
    Jeffett, William, and Suzanne L. Stratton. Dalí and the Spanish Baroque. St. Petersburg, Florida: Salvador Dalí Museum, 2007. Mentioned: p. 92-92; fig. 64
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    Checa Cremades, Fernando. Velazquez, the complete paintings. Antwerp, Belgium: Ludion, 2008. Reproduced: p. 100, fig. 28
    Hirshler, Erica E., and John Singer Sargent. Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting. Boston, Massachusetts: MFA Publications, 2009. Reproduced: p. 19
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    López-Rey, José, Odile Delenda and Benedikt Taschen. Velázquez: The Complete Works. Köln: Taschen, 2014. Reproduced & Mentined: pp. 80-81, 98-99, 345-346, fig. 36
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    Roberts, Lynn. "Style Snapshot." Picture Framing Magazine 29, no. 6 (June 2018). Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 46
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    López-Rey, José, Diego Velázquez, Odile Delenda, and Benedikt Taschen. Velázquez: The Complete Works. 2020, 99, 345-346. Reproduced: pp. 99, 345; Mentioned: pp. 345-346.
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    Dalí and the Spanish Baroque. Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL (organizer) (February 2-June 24, 2007).
    Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007).
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    Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 25-June 29, 2003).
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    Exposition Retrospective. Palais des Champs-Elysees, Paris, France (1866).
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  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of the Jester Calabazas|url=false|author=Diego Velázquez|year=c. 1631–32|access-date=16 May 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.15