Pieter van Laer, "Magic Scene with Self-Portrait"
Dutch painter Pieter van Laer was a dwarf, nicknamed "The Large Baby" (Il Bamboccio) by his Roman contemporaries. This unusual painting, on loan to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, has become the Internet's favorite among van Laer's output. Van Laer casts himself as a comic sorcerer's apprentice whose study of forbidden books has gotten out of hand. The message: Books are dangerous things.