id: 141549
accession number: 1965.15
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.15
updated: 2023-09-13 11:02:58.018000
Portrait of the Jester Calabazas, c. 1631–32. Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660). 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1965.15
title: Portrait of the Jester Calabazas
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1631–32
creation date earliest: 1631
creation date latest: 1632
current location: 212 Baroque Painting and Sculpture
creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
copyright:
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culture: Spain, 17th century
technique: oil on canvas
department: European Painting and Sculpture
collection: P - Spanish before 1800
type: Painting
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660) - artist
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measurements: 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.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review: 1965
opening date: 1965-10-27T04:00:00
Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).
title: Portraiture: The Image of the Individual
opening date: 1983-11-22T05:00:00
Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984).
title: Velazquez
opening date: 1989-10-03T04:00:00
Velazquez. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (October 3, 1989-January 7, 1990); Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain (January 29-March 30, 1990).
title: Velázquez, His Third Journey to Italy
opening date: 2001-03-28T00:00:00
Velázquez, His Third Journey to Italy. Palazzo Ruspoli, Rome (March 28-June 30, 2001).
title: Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting
opening date: 2003-02-25T00:00:00
Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 25-June 29, 2003).
title: The Palace of the Planet King. Philip IV and the Buen Retiro
opening date: 2005-07-05T00:00:00
The Palace of the Planet King. Philip IV and the Buen Retiro. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (July 5-November 27, 2005).
title: Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2006-11-08T00:00:00
Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007).
title: Dalí and the Spanish Baroque
opening date: 2007-02-02T00:00:00
Dalí and the Spanish Baroque. Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL (organizer) (February 2-June 24, 2007).
title: Diego Velázquez: The Early Court Portraits
opening date: 2012-09-16T00:00:00
Diego Velázquez: The Early Court Portraits. Meadows Museum, Dallas, TX (organizer) (September 16, 2012-January 13, 2013).
title: Velázquez
opening date: 2015-03-25T00:00:00
Velázquez. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (March 25-July 13, 2015).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Exposition Retrospective. Palais des Champs-Elysees, Paris, France (1866).
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PROVENANCE
Royal Collections (Palacio del Beun Retiro, Madrid)
date: ca. 1631-32 - until at least 1808
footnotes:
citations:
Private Collection (Great Britain)
date: - possibly 1863
footnotes:
citations:
Jean-Gilbert-Victor Fialin, Duc de Persigny, 1808-1872 (Paris, France) (sold, Hotel Drouot, Paris, April 4,1872, as "Le Fou," for 750 francs
date: by 1867 - 1872
footnotes:
citations:
Maurice Cottier (died 1881), (Paris, France, and Château Cangé, Touraine.
date: by 1881
footnotes:
citations:
Sir George Donaldson (1845-1925) London, England, and Brighton, England, sold to Herbert Frederick Cook, 1915.
date: by 1906 - 1915
footnotes:
citations:
Herbert Frederick Cook, later 3rd Baronet, 1868-1939 (Richmond, England), by inheritance to Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 1939.
date: 1915-1939
footnotes:
citations:
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.
date: 1939-
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1965-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
Calabazas holds a wind-driven pinwheel and a miniature portrait of a woman, together suggesting the inconstancy of love.
digital description:
wall 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.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
page number:
url:
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.
page number: Reproduced: p. 33, no. 75
url:
Justi, Carl, and A. H. Keane. Diego Velazquez and His Times. London, United Kingdom: H. Grevel & Co, 1889.
page number: Reproduced: p.438
url:
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.
page number: Mentioned: 226-227
url:
Brockwell, Maurice W. "The Cook Collection, Part III." Connoisseur L (January, 1918): 8.
page number: Reproduced: p. 8. pl. XXIII
url:
Moreno Villa, José. Velázquez. Madrid, Spain: Editorial "Saturnino Calleja", 1920.
page number: Mentioned: p. 38-40; Reproduced: p. 24
url:
Brock, Maurice W. "Calabacillas, the Buffoon." Connoisseur LIX (February, 1921): 116-121.
page number: Mentioned: p. 116, 119-120; Reproduced: 121
url:
Mayer, August L. Diego Velázquez. Berlin, Germany: Propyläen-Verlag, 1924.
page number: Mentioned: p. 74-75
url:
Salazar, Juan Allende. Velazquez; des meisters gemälde in 275 abbildungen. Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche verlags-anstalt, 1925.
page number: Reproduced: p. 30; Mentioned: p. 274
url:
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.
page number: Reproduced: p. 59, no. 500, pl. XX
url:
Justi, Carl. Diego Velazquez und sein Jahrhundert. Zürich, Switzerland: Phaidon-verlag, 1933.
page number: Reproduced: p. 705, pl. 25
url:
Mayer, August L. Velazquez; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Pictures and Drawings. London, United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, Limited, 1936.
page number: Reproduced: p. 104, no. 445, pl. 149
url:
Mayer, August L. Velazquez. New York New York.: French Library of Fine Arts, French and European Publications, Inc, 1939.
page number: reproduced: p. 14
url:
Ferrari, , Enrique Lafuente, J. R. Carey, and Neil MacLaren. Velazquez. London, United Kingdom, : G. Allen & Unwin ltd, The Phaidon press, 1943.
page number: Reproduced: p. 19, pl. 32
url:
Trapier, Elizabeth du Gué. Velazquez. New York, New York: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1948.
page number: Reproduced: p. 115
url:
Justi, Carl, and Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño. Velázquez y su siglo. Madrid, Spain: Espasa-Calpe, 1953.
page number: Mentioned: p. 704-706; Reproduced: fig. 193
url:
Ortega y Gasset, José, Alfred E. Herzer, F. J. Sánchez Cantón, and C. David Ley. Velazquez. New York, New York: Random House, 1953.
page number: Reproduced: no. 67
url:
Pantorba, Bernardino de. La vida y la obra de Velázquez; estudio biográfico y crítico. Madrid, Spain: Compañía Bibliográfica Espanñola, 1955.
page number: Mentioned: p. 92-93; Reproduced: p. 141, no. 32
url:
López-Rey, José. Velázquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Oeuvre. London, United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, 1963.
page number: Mentioned: p. 52, 57; Reproduced: p. 264, no. 423, pl. 49
url:
Museo del Prado. Museo del Prado: catálogo de las pinturas. Madrid, Spain: El Museo, 1963.
page number: Reproduced: p. 744, no. 1250
url:
Camón Aznar, José. Velázquez. Madrid, Spain: Espasa-Calpe, 1964.
page number: Reproduced: p. 611, 1004; vol. II
url:
"Year in Review 1965." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LII, no. 10 (November, 1965).
page number: Reproduced: cover
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Reproduced: p. 130
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n154
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced: p. 130
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n154
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 149
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n169
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.
page number: Reproduced: p. 510; Mentioned: p. 511-513
url:
Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio, Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, and Julián Gállego. Velázquez. New York, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989.
page number: Reproduced: p. 20
url:
Garín Llombart, Felipe Vicente, and Salvador Salort Pons. Velázquez. Milano, Italy: Electa, 2001.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 196-199
url:
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.
page number: Reproduced: p. 451, fig. 10.49
url:
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.
page number: Reperoduced: p. 141, fig. 94
url:
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.
page number: Mentioned: p. 88; Reproduced: p. 89, no. 8
url:
Smee, Sebastian. Lucian Freud, 1996-2005. London, United Kingdom: Jonathan Cape, 2005.
page number: Mentioned: p. 13-14; Reproduced: p. 28
url:
Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, New York: The Frick Collection, 2006.
page number: Mentioned: p. 44-47; Reproduced: no. 8
url:
Jeffett, William, and Suzanne L. Stratton. Dalí and the Spanish Baroque. St. Petersburg, Florida: Salvador Dalí Museum, 2007.
page number: Mentioned: p. 92-92; fig. 64
url:
Lévy, Jean-Marc. Médecins et malades dans la peinture européenne du XVIIe siècle. Paris, France: L'Harmattan, 2008.
page number: Mentioned: p. 154-156, vol. I; p. 7, 132-133, vol. II; Reproduced: fig. 69
url:
Checa Cremades, Fernando. Velazquez, the complete paintings. Antwerp, Belgium: Ludion, 2008.
page number: Reproduced: p. 100, fig. 28
url:
Hirshler, Erica E., and John Singer Sargent. Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting. Boston, Massachusetts: MFA Publications, 2009.
page number: Reproduced: p. 19
url:
Condo, George. "Feature." Apollo 18 (October 2011): 70-74.
page number: Reproduced: p. 71, fig. 5
url:
Portús Pérez, Javier. Diego Velázquez: the early court portraits. Dallas, Texas: The Meadows Museum, 2012.
page number: Mentioned: p. 94-96; Reproduced: no. 4
url:
Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. London, United Kingdom: Scala Books, 2012.
page number: Mentioned: p. 190-191
url:
López-Rey, José, Odile Delenda and Benedikt Taschen. Velázquez: The Complete Works. Köln: Taschen, 2014.
page number: Reproduced & Mentined: pp. 80-81, 98-99, 345-346, fig. 36
url:
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 183
url:
Kientz, Guillaume. Velázquez. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux -- Grand Palais: Musée du Louvre, 2015.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 240-241, no. 67
url:
Roglán, Mark A. Spanish Art in America. [Madrid, Spain: Ediciones El Viso, 2016.
page number: Reproduced: p. 80
url:
Pavans, Jean. Le musée intérieur de Henry James. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2016.
page number: Mentioned: p. 100, 183; Reproduced p. xxx
url:
Herdrich, Stephanie L. "Sargent, Art History, and the Critics." In John Singer Sargent . Per Hedstrom, editor, 107-122. Stockholm : Nationalmuseum, 2018.
page number: Reproduced: p. 110
url:
Montanari, Tomaso. Velázquez e il Ritratto Barocco.Torino: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2018.
page number: Reproduced: p. 242, pl. 142; p. 245, pl. 144 (detail); Mentioned: 241, 244
url:
Roberts, Lynn. "Style Snapshot." Picture Framing Magazine 29, no. 6 (June 2018).
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 46
url:
D. Aureliano de Beruete y Moret. "Exhibition of Ancient and Spanish Paintings at the Royal Academy." Connoisseur LVIII (December, 1920):188.
page number: Reproduced: p. 188
url:
López-Rey, José, Diego Velázquez, Odile Delenda, and Benedikt Taschen. Velázquez: The Complete Works. 2020, 99, 345-346.
page number: Reproduced: pp. 99, 345; Mentioned: pp. 345-346.
url:
García Serrano, Federico, and Diego Velázquez. Velázquez en 30 claves. Barcelona : Larousse, 2022.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 119
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.15/1965.15_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.15/1965.15_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.15/1965.15_full.tif