Maria Bárbola
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Maria Bárbola, also known as Mari, Mariabárbola and Mariabárbola Asquín, was a Spanish courtier, foremost known from the famous painting Las Meninas.
Maria Bárbola, as depicted in Las Meninas, by Diego Velázquez
Court dwarf
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Over the course of history, some people with dwarfism were employed as court dwarfs. They were owned and traded amongst people of the court, and delivered as gifts to kings and queens. Filling a simil
Maria Bárbola
…died after 1700), was a Spanish courtier, foremost known from the famous painting Las Meninas. She was from Austria and from 1651 onward employed as a court dwarf in the household of the queen regent of Spain, Mariana of Austria, with the official title Enana de la Reina, and a companion to Margaret Theresa of…
19th-century depiction of servants in the Ottoman Imperial Harem: the Chief Black Eunuch (left), a court dwarf (middle) and the Chief White Eunuch (right).
Stele hieroglyph depicting the court dwarf Hed, who died with his master, from the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Den, 2850 BCE
Spanish court dwarfs with a dog by Jan van Kessel the Younger, 1670s
Portrait of Philip IV of Spain with his court dwarf by Gaspar de Crayer