Diego Velazquez; 1599-1660 The Face of Spain

Beneath a bushy, untidy moustache, teeth flash between sensual lips. The man in the picture (p.6) stands there smiling, shown half-length, turned to one side but with his face towards us. His right hand is placed on his hip, in an attitude setting off the heavy folds of a red cloak. The thin little man's otherwise rather unimpressive figure and broad, quizzical face, his black doublet and his white lace collar all suggest the portrait of some humorous hidalgo or courtier of the seventeenth century. However, the subject of the painting is the Greek philosopher Democritus expressing his amusement at the world, which stands on the table in front of him in the shape of a globe.