The Clubfoot

A grinning boy with a deformed foot leans on a crutch against a shining sky. He holds a placard: DA MIHI ELIMOSINAM PROPTER AMOREM DEI — Give me alms for the love of God. Ribera made the boy a hero: he stands taller than the horizon; his smile is proud, not pitiful. The placard tells us he is mute — the sign speaks for him. It is one of the earliest depictions in Western art of a disabled person as proud. He looks straight down at us. The Louvre hangs it at eye level. Now at Musée du Louvre, Paris @museelouvre