Year 1631 Artist Diego Velázquez Period Baroque Media Paint, Oil paint, Canvas | Medium Oil on canvas Created 1631 Genre Portrait | |
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Dimensions 128 cm × 102 cm (50 in × 40 in) Location Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Similar Diego Velázquez artwork, Baroque artwork, Portraits | ||
Prince Balthasar Charles With a Dwarf is a 1631 portrait by Diego Velázquez of Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias and a court dwarf. It is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
The prince is shown in the uniform of a captain-general (adapted to his infant state but still including a commander's baton in his right hand, a shoulder sash and a sword hilt in his left hand). The dwarf holds an apple and a rattle, to contrast with the heir to the most powerful monarchy in Europe, who is shown as already in military training and not needing these usual children's attributes. The prince's static posture, in contrast to the dynamism of the dwarf's figure, turning to contemplate the prince, has caused some art historians to think that the painting was originally only of the prince, with the dwarf added later.