Portrait of Sebastián de Morra

The Portrait of Sebastián de Morra is a painting by Diego Velázquez of Sebastián de Morra, a court dwarf and jester at the court of Philip IV of Spain, painted around 1644 and now held in the Prado in Madrid. Little is documented about de Morra's life beyond the fact that he was brought to Spain by Philip IV in 1643 and served the court for six years before his death in 1649; later-discovered inventories show he was also known by the nickname El Primo. Velázquez, once he became a court painter, portrayed court dwarfs with a warmer and more naturalistic style than earlier painters had used, and de Morra looks directly at the viewer, motionless and making no hand gestures, which has led one critic to read the painting as a denunciation of the court's treatment of de Morra and other dwarfs.