Court dwarf

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Gaspar de Crayer : Philip IV of Spain with a court dwarf , around 1620–1625

Rulers of past centuries often had the charge (office) of court dwarfs at their courts . The duties assigned to the court dwarfs could be of various kinds, and there were also short women at the courts who normally belonged to the court of a noble woman. In some cases a court dwarf also held the position of court jester .

Historical

Small people lived in ancient Egypt and China at the courts of rulers. In China, they were not always treated well, Confucius himself is said to have ordered the execution of some court dwarfs, Emperor Hsuan-Tung kept them in a so-called "resting place for desirable monsters" and Emperor Wu Di from the Western Han dynasty imported numerous small stature as slaves . When a provincial governor named Yang Cheng stood up for the little people and told the emperor that they were not slaves but his subjects and should be treated like that, Wu Di was touched and released them. Yang Cheng is said to have been deified by some of the families of the affected small people and his image was venerated for centuries. However, there were still court dwarfs at the Chinese imperial court.

The court dwarf Maribárbola and the dwarf Nicolás de Pertusato, in Diego Velázquez : Las Meninas (detail), 1656

The special role that dwarfs often played at European rulers from the 15th to 18th centuries can be explained by all sorts of characteristics that were ascribed to short people. They were seen as the riddles of nature and were associated with mystical abilities, so that they were often seen as good luck charms . Occasionally they have been ascribed healing abilities. Due to their small size, they were not infrequently playmates for princely children (see, for example, Velázquez's painting Las Meninas or his portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos with a dwarf ), and could sometimes later play the role of a particularly close and loved confidante . A certain tendency towards the cute, (apparently) childlike and innocent could also have played a role, similar to the numerous figures of putti found in Renaissance and Baroque art . Court gnomes were conspicuously often represented with animals such as dogs, exotic birds ( parrots , cockatoos ) or monkeys , so they seem to have taken care of the animals at the court. Since large dogs such as mastiffs or shepherds often look almost like a horse next to a small one , this optical effect on paintings could also have been chosen to emphasize the smallness of a dwarf (e.g. Cardinal Granvelles dwarf and mastiff by Anthonis Mor , around 1549–1560, Louvre , Paris).

The desire to surround himself with little people, came from a general interest in whimsical or " wonder -filled" phenomena of life. Significantly, the heyday of the court dwarfs in the 16th and 17th centuries coincided on the one hand with the terrible superstition of witches and on the other hand with the appearance of the so-called Wunderkammer . In the famous chamber of art and curiosities at Ambras Castle , for example, B. a painting in which a giant and a life-size dwarf can be seen side by side, and also depictions of strange and rare phenomena, such as men with completely hairy faces, bearded women, disabled people, etc. The mentioned phenomena were on one similar level with other rarities of nature as special shells, precious gems , objects from unusual materials such Nautilusschnecken , bezoars , Seychellennüsse , Narwalzähne that time was often not known and therefore shrouded in legend, whose exact origin. So one held z. B. Narwal teeth for the horn of the legendary unicorn , which has been ascribed miraculous powers. A similar aura of the miraculous and fairy tales also surrounded small people or " giants " and made them something special and precious, a fascination that one would like to have around at court.

Alonso Sánchez Coello : Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia and her dwarf Magdalena Ruiz , 1585–1588, Prado , Madrid

Apart from such an almost 'scientific' interest - albeit not yet in the modern scientific sense - it may also have played a role that dwarfs represent the opposite of an 'imposing appearance'. Therefore, through their contrast, they could emphasize the grandeur of the nobleman or the beauty and grace of the noble lady (especially in portraits), but also represent a vanitas- like reminder that the prince and princess (and / or the viewer) of their own Smallness and fragility behind a grand or pompous facade reminded one. In many portraits of princes with dwarfs, it cannot be overlooked, in addition to a special affection, that dwarfs and other handicapped persons were also subjects of protection to the ruler. The prince or princess hold their hand protectively over the head of a dwarf, who appears as a symbol and a particularly visible embodiment of the weak - just as it has been one of the knightly (and noble) virtues to protect the weak since the Middle Ages . An example of this is Coello's portrait of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia with her dwarf Magdalena Ruíz, but the same caressing or protective gesture can be found in a similar way in various other portraits.

Similar to (other) disabled people or so-called cripples , court dwarfs also appeared in the function of court jesters, who, precisely because of their externally visible 'unimportance' and smallness, were allowed to pronounce things and could take out everything that normal mortals or courtiers, who were bound by the strict court etiquette , should not even have allowed themselves in a dream. Of course, they could also add to the harmless amusement and exhilaration of the rulers. A ruler might surround himself with a larger group of unusual-looking people. However, it can not be assumed that simply laughed at over short stature or disabled (or fun of them did), but that the court dwarfs who practiced the profession of a fool, certain humor full and humorous qualities had to bring that do not everyone owned. It goes without saying that the special appearance could be used for special effects or 'theater coups', e.g. B. when at a gala dinner a court dwarf jumped out of a pie to the surprise of those present . So happened z. B. at a feast that the Duke of Buckingham gave for King Charles I of England and his wife and where the unusually pretty and little Jeffery Hudson (1619–1682) rose from the pie. Queen Henrietta was so delighted with the joke and the little man that she immediately adopted him and had Van Dyck paint her with him.

Diego Velázquez : A court dwarf with books, probably Don Diego de Acedo called "el Primo" ( Prado , around 1645)

The custom of the court dwarfs seems to have been particularly widespread at the Spanish court, which on the other hand was notorious for its strict court ceremonies and was also a pioneer of the particularly strict and restrictive Spanish court costume . It is reasonable to assume that court dwarfs and jesters should create a certain counterbalance and a relaxation of this strictness. In the 16th and 17th centuries, they were often painted together with a member of the royal family - the king himself, the queen or the infants - by painters such as Alonso Sánchez Coello , Frans Pourbus the Elder. J. , Rodrigo de Villandrado , Gaspar de Crayer , Diego Velázquez , Juan Carreño de Miranda u. a. The nowadays most famous Spanish court dwarfs lived at the court of Philip IV and were portrayed by Velázquez, including (probably) Francisco Lescano , called " el Niño de Vallecas " (the boy from Vallecas), Diego de Acedo and Sebastián de Morra . Also on Velázquez's famous painting Las Meninas , in addition to the infanta and her maid of honor, the court dwarf Maribárbola and the dwarf Nicolás de Pertusato can be seen. Spanish infants who were married abroad, such as Maria Teresa of Spain or her half-sister Margarita , often took dwarf women with them. They then often had an important position of trust and were allowed to prepare the Queen's chocolate , for example - a completely new product from America at the time and a much more complicated task than mixing a modern cocoa drink.

Rudolf II (1552–1612), who was educated at the Spanish court, and who also had a particularly strong interest in alchemy , gold-making and magic , was one of the first rulers in Central Europe whose courts have reported about dwarves and had esoteric healing properties of precious stones; He was a particularly passionate collector who lived almost exclusively for his cabinet of curiosities. His court dwarfs were also famous, sought-after and notorious. Many nobles in Rudolf's circle strived to do the same.

It seemed particularly desirable to have a dwarf as a valet , page , butler, or secretary . The following excerpt from Otto Flake's book about the Türkenlouis represents a particularly extreme and somewhat 'degenerate' case of a preference for court dwarfs, even around 1700:

“Even if there wasn't much money to be found in the Neuburg house , Maria Franziska must have brought something with her, otherwise the thirty-eight dwarfs she kept and added a new note to the Baden-Baden townscape would be incomprehensible. She gave them names like Dürrschnabel and Dürrschnablin, and also liked to establish marriages between them. When it became too bad for him, Margrave Wilhelm ordered her to release thirty. "

The custom of the court dwarfs ended in the Enlightenment .

For posterity, a correct assessment of the historical phenomenon is sometimes made more difficult by an inadequate presentation of authors, who up until the recent past often incorporated massive prejudices and dislikes into their texts . This is shown e.g. B. in the choice of discriminatory vocabulary or negative ideas that had nothing to do with the reality of short people at any time. Examples are some cases from art history : In 1964 Richard Tüngel wrote in his book about the Prado and about the portraits of court dwarves and jesters by Velázquez as a blanket of "... portraits of fools, idiots and freaks ...". He even describes the dwarf Maribárbola in the painting Las Meninas as "... a particularly ugly freak ...", and he does speak of the portrait of the court dwarf with books (" Don Diego de Acedo, called El Primo ", see picture above) of the "most profoundly portrayed figure among the fools", but at the same time and for no reason doubts his intelligence and ability to read, instead he accuses him of "nonsense of his actions". At the end of the 20th century, the Velázquez biographer López-Rey made the remark in a more neutral text about the same painting: "The fact that this model is also a dumb dwarf ...". He also speaks of "debility" in connection with the portrait known as Don Sebastián de Morra (around 1645, Prado, Madrid). The assessments mentioned are by no means justified by the appearance of the court dwarfs in question - on the contrary, they appear intelligent.

Even in the 19th and 20th centuries, small (and huge) people were and still are a fascination and a popular attraction for normal-sized human beings. Wilhelm Hauff created a literary treatment of the subject with the fairy tale of " Little Muck " (1826), whose title character lives temporarily as a court dwarf at a royal court. The descendants of the real court dwarfs worked in the circus and in the film industry. B. Charles Stratton or the Ovitz family , who tragically ended up in Auschwitz but survived. More recently, actors like Warwick Davis ( Willow ) or the French Mimie Mathy ( '' Joséphine, ange gardien '' ) have embodied fairy-tale beings in films, and their smallness is the focus of attention and makes them particularly popular with many people, similar like the court dwarfs once. In the Angélique films of the 1960s, the short Roberto played the sympathetic beggar Barcarolle, who rose to become a court dwarf.

The fashion of funny dwarfs in art

Jacques Callot : Cover of the Varie Figure Gobbi Collection , 1616

The engraver and caricaturist Jacques Callot published a grotesquely comical collection in Florence in 1616 called Varie Figure Gobbi with engravings of dwarfish joke figures or clownish dwarfs - the Callotti after their creator . These are, however, pure fantasy figures, a kind of caricature of human weaknesses and very probably also influenced by the pranksters of the Italian Commedia dell'arte . Callot's collection was very successful and later found imitators, especially in Germany with Martin Engelbrecht's sequence of cues Callotto resuscitato or the newly furnished Zwerchen Cabinet (1710–1750), where human weaknesses and vanities are even more clearly targeted , or with the so-called dwarf calendars. The Callotti also inspired the goldsmiths and jewelers who made tiny, grotesque dwarfs (and other figures) out of valuable materials, especially with bodies made of baroque pearls. All of this also led to the fashion of baroque garden gnomes , as you can still see today in some baroque palace parks, especially in Central Europe. The most famous collection of such dwarf statues is in the Mirabell Gardens of Mirabell Palace in Salzburg .

To what extent the fashion of the Callotti, the pearl and the garden gnomes had a relation to the real world of the court gnomes can only be guessed today. Beyond a general baroque fascination with the short stature, Callot himself could have been inspired by court dwarfs and jesters as well as comedians at the court of Cosimo II. De 'Medici in Florence. The phenomenon of the well-known Electoral Palatinate court dwarf and fool Perkeo , who was famous for his "ability to drink" but was a heavy alcoholic by the standards of modern medicine , seems to have a direct connection to some drinking dwarf figures by Callot or from the baroque goldsmith's art - in any case, his behavior corresponded to an already existing idea.

Famous court dwarfs

The court jester Perkeo from the Palatinate on an engraving by Johann Georg Dathan ,

gallery

See also

literature

  • Betty M. Adelson: The Lives of Dwarfs , Rutgers University Press New Jersey, 2005, ISBN 0813535484
  • Hugh Chisholm : "Dwarf" (= "dwarf"), in: Encyclopaedia Britannica , Vol. 8, Cambridge University Press , 1911, pp. 739-740, online (accessed August 3, 2018; English).
  • Géza von Habsburg: Princely Art Chambers in Europe , Stuttgart et al .: Kohlhammer, 1997.
  • Gerhardt Petrat: The last fools and dwarfs at court. Reflections on rule and morality in the early modern period. Winkler, Bochum 1998, ISBN 3-924517-87-8 .
  • Dirk Syndram & Ulrike Weinhold: "… and a body of Perl" - the collection of baroque pearl figures in the Green Vault ", Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Edition Minerva, Wolfratshausen 2007.
  • Dwarf calendar August the Strong 2002 . mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2001, ISBN 3-89812-103-8 .

Web links

Commons : Hofzwerge  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Betty M. Adelson: The Lives of Dwarfs , Rutgers University Press New Jersey, 2005, ISBN 0813535484
  2. ↑ In the English original: "Resting Place for Desirable Monsters." Betty M. Adelson: The Lives of Dwarfs , Rutgers University Press New Jersey, 2005.
  3. ↑ Identification of the people in: José Lopez-Rey: Velázquez - Complete Works , Wildenstein Institute / Benedikt Taschen-Verlag, Cologne 1997: p. 209.
  4. ↑ c: Category: El príncipe Baltasar Carlos con un enano (Velázquez)
  5. ↑ File: Giovanni Bona.jpg
  6. ↑ File: 16th-century unknown painters - The "Hairy Man from Munich" - WGA23788.jpg
  7. ↑ File: Innsbruck 2 264.jpg
  8. ↑ File: Portrait of a handicapped man.jpg
  9. ^ Géza von Habsburg: Princely art chambers in Europe , Stuttgart et al .: Kohlhammer, 1997, pp. 118–119, 122–126.
  10. ↑ Géza von Habsburg: Princely Kunstkammern in Europa , Stuttgart et al .: Kohlhammer, 1997, p. 126.
  11. ↑ see c: Category: Portraits with dwarves
  12. ^ Hugh Chisholm, "Dwarf," in: Encyclopaedia Britannica , Vol. 8, Cambridge University Press, 1911, pp. 739-740.
  13. ↑ File: Anthonis van Dyck 013.jpg
  14. ↑ José Lopez-Rey: Velázquez - Complete Works , Wildenstein Institute / Benedikt Taschen-Verlag, Cologne 1997: pp. 133-136.
  15. ↑ José Lopez-Rey: Velázquez - Complete Works , Wildenstein Institute / Benedikt Taschen-Verlag, Cologne 1997: pp. 131, 133-136 (dwarf portraits), 137-139, 208-209 ( Las Meninas ), 260-264 (catalog ).
  16. ↑ José Lopez-Rey: Velázquez - Complete Works , Wildenstein Institute / Benedikt Taschen-Verlag, Cologne 1997: p. 209.
  17. ↑ a b Géza von Habsburg: Fürstliche Kunstkammern in Europa , Stuttgart et al .: Kohlhammer, 1997, pp. 115–139, here: p. 136.
  18. ^ Richard Tüngel: Art, Culture and History in the Prado , Schweizer Verlagshaus AG, Zurich, 1964, p. 163.
  19. ↑ Richard Tüngel: Art, Culture and History in the Prado , ... Zurich, 1964, p. 181.
  20. ↑ Richard Tüngel: Art, Culture and History in the Prado ,… Zurich, 1964, p. 163.
  21. ↑ José Lopez-Rey: Velázquez - Complete Works , Wildenstein Institute / Benedikt Taschen-Verlag, Cologne 1997: p. 134.
  22. ↑ José Lopez-Rey: Velázquez - Complete Works , ..., Cologne 1997: p. 134.
  23. ↑ Roberto's filmography on IMDb , as seen on August 5, 2018.
  24. ↑ c: Category: Engravings by Jacques Callot - Les Gobbi
  25. ↑ Dirk Syndram & Ulrike Weinhold: "… and a body of Perl" - the collection of baroque pearl figures in the Green Vault ", Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden , Edition Minerva, Wolfratshausen 2007, pp. 18-20.
  26. ↑ Dirk Syndram & Ulrike Weinhold: "… and a body of Perl" - the collection of baroque pearl figures in the Green Vault ", Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden , Edition Minerva, Wolfratshausen 2007, pp. 18-21, 32-33, 36, 38, 49, 53.
  27. ↑ Dirk Syndram & Ulrike Weinhold: "… and a body of Perl" - the collection of baroque pearl figures in the Green Vault ", Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Edition Minerva, Wolfratshausen 2007, p. 18.
  28. ↑ From Callot "The Drinker with the Raised Glass" and from the pearl figures z. B. the "grotesque figure of a bar innkeeper" on a barrel (around 1702) in the treasury of the Munich residence , or the "dancing dwarf with bottle and mug" (before 1706) in the green vault in Dresden, in: Dirk Syndram & Ulrike Weinhold: "... and a body of pearl" - the collection of baroque pearl figures in the Green Vault ", Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Edition Minerva, Wolfratshausen 2007, p. 53.
  29. ↑ The court dwarfs in Saxony (seen on August 2, 2018)