In the 1640s Velázquez continued to paint the excellent portraits of dwarfs and fools such as the dwarfs El Niño de Vallecas, Sebastian de Morra and El Primo. With his brilliant powers of observation and his psychological sensitivity, Velázquez recorded every detail of the physical abnormalities and confused minds of this curious class of society.

As a court painter, Velázquez was required to paint group portraits as well as portraits of individual figures. Another of the tasks required of Velázquez, though to a lesser extent, was the painting of altarpieces. The Coronation of the Virgin was painted around 1645, possibly for the queen's oratory in the Alcázar in Madrid.

Velázquez was sent in 1649 to Rome, where he made two of his greatest portraits, one of Pope Innocent X and another, of his studio assistant Juan de Pareja, a Sevillian of Moorish descent. He also painted the Rokeby Venus, his only surviving picture of this kind, which remained unique in Spain until Goya depicted the Naked Maja, which was probably inspired by it.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	Self-Portrait 1643 Oil on canvas, 70 x 58 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
	Self-Portrait c. 1645 Oil on canvas, 104 x 83 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
	The Dwarf Francisco Lezcano, Called "El Niño de Vallecas" 1643-45 Oil on canvas, 107 x 83 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
	The Dwarf Sebastian de Morra c. 1645 Oil on canvas, 106,5 x 81,5 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
	Don Diego de Acedo (El Primo) c. 1645 Oil on canvas, 106 x 83 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
	Phillip IV in Army Dress (The portrait of Fraga) 1644 Oil on canvas, 133,5 x 95 cm Frick Collection, New York
	Arachne 1644-48 Oil on canvas, 64 x 58 cm Meadows Museum, Dallas
	The Coronation of the Virgin 1645 Oil on canvas, 178 x 135 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
	The Coronation of the Virgin (detail) 1645 Oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid
	View of Zaragoza 1647 Oil on canvas, 181 x 331 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
	Portrait of a Man c. 1649 Oil on canvas, 76 x 64,5 cm Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London
	Portrait of Innocent X c. 1650 Oil on canvas, 141 x 119 cm Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome
	Pope Innocent X c. 1650 Oil on canvas, 49,2 x 41,3 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington
	Juan de Pareja c. 1650 Oil on canvas, 81,3 x 69,9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
	Venus at her Mirror (The Rokeby Venus) 1649-51 Oil on canvas, 122,5 x 177 cm National Gallery, London