"A self-confident little being": Picasso, dunce and child prodigy in Malaga

Pablo Picasso 's childhood began in the arena. Picasso - the name of his mother, possibly of Italian and Genoese origin - was born - brace yourself! - Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martir Patricio Ruiz y Picasso, on October 25, 1881 at 36 Plaza de la Merced in Andalusian Malaga . His baptism, all in lace, was celebrated in the traditional way at the Santiago el mayor church in Malaga. He was the eldest and only son of Don José Ruiz y Blasco, a tall, fair-skinned man with beautiful posture, like the dandies dear to his American contemporary Henry James , an academic painter and professor of painting at the Provincial School of Arts and Crafts in the city known as "San Telmo." His face already devoured by his large black eyes, Pablo the conqueror, this adored son of a very feminine family circle, this small (1.63 m) and stocky man, will become a giant, the very emblem of modern art, this bull in the arena who...