The Boy from Vallecas, Francisco Lezcano, 1638

Francisco is holding a pack of cards, inviting any rube who might dare to be cheated of a few coins. He is informal and relaxed, possessed of an attitude that would be unthinkable in a portrait of any other sort of person. His casualness belies a cheeky fellow.

He was born afflicted with a thryoid deficiency (cretinism with oligophrenia) that significantly impacted both his physical and intellectual capabilities which, given the less-than-enlight-ened timbre of the times, the palace found amusing. But better than the alternative of being abandoned in a midden.

Velázquez' treatment of Lezcano's head and hands are breathtaking in the seemingly casual rendering of facial forms, executed with an economy of means achieved by very few painters. Every brush stroke is rendered with a sympathetic correspondence to the underlying anatomical forms.

The gaze and undercarriage of the nose are articulated minimally, yet convincingly. And, here, Diego has nailed the mouth firmly to the cross: an intriguingly mocking invitation to try your hands at cards.

I, for one, would decline for fear of losing my lunch money.

A subtle expression is the devil to paint; an hesitant and excessive description will transform a friendly laugh into the hideous guffaw of a sociopathic felon.

John Singer Sargent, who was highly influenced by Velázquez, stressed to his students that in order to fully understand the modelling of the head is to paint it omitting the facial features. Every student is feature centric. So, too, was Velázquez.

Like Velázquez, look deep past the facial features and into the underlying planes and structures that comprise a head. Therein lies truth and the likeness in all of its manifestations.