Whether it was curiosity, respect, or monetary avariciousness, there has rarely been a segment of time known to man when a great deal of interest was not shown in dwarfs. Today our interest is medical. In the span of Perkeo's life during the 18th century, dwarfs provided amusement in the royal circles, and he did not disappoint them.
Portraits of dwarfs can be found in almost all periods of art and abundant representations may be seen in early Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Mayan, and pre-Columbian cultures. In antiquity, hunchback dwarfs were considered ill omens, and even in the early Christian era were thought to be discriminated against by the gods. Much later, to their good fortune, they became symbols of good luck and in time, instead of being relegated to the group of sick and deformed beings despised by society, the clever ones led good existences if they played their hands