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Juan de Pareja
Who was Juan de Pareja?
Spanish painter (1606-1670)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Juan de Pareja (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Juan de Pareja (c. 1606 – c. 1670) was a Spanish painter from Antequera in Andalusia, Spain. Born into slavery, this early life experience had a big impact on his journey into art. As a young man, he ended up in the household of renowned court painter Diego Velázquez, where he spent a lot of his life working as both a servant and assistant. In this setting, surrounded by painting materials, Pareja honed his own artistic talents, though his status as a slave initially barred him from pursuing a professional art career.
The most notable event in Pareja's life occurred during Velázquez's diplomatic trip to Rome from 1648 to 1651. Velázquez was on a mission to acquire art and sculptures for the Spanish Crown, and Pareja traveled with him. During their stay in Rome, Velázquez painted a portrait of Pareja that was shown at the Pantheon in 1650 and was widely praised by the Roman art community. Observers at the time mentioned that while other paintings looked like art, the portrait of Pareja looked like the real man. Shortly after, on November 23, 1650, Velázquez officially freed Pareja through a legal document in Rome, though Pareja continued to serve him for four more years.
Once freed, Pareja pursued his career as a painter, no longer restricted by his previous status. He remained in Spain and created religious pieces that showed Velázquez's influence while also displaying his own unique style. His most famous surviving painting, The Calling of Saint Matthew, was completed in 1661 and is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It illustrates the biblical story of Christ inviting the tax collector Matthew to follow him, showcasing Pareja's skill in using light and grouping figures.
Pareja passed away in Madrid around 1670, leaving behind a small but important collection of work. His life story, which intertwines the challenges of slavery with artistic success within the elite circles of seventeenth-century Spanish art, continues to attract scholarly and cultural interest. Though not all of his work is fully documented, the pieces attributed to him prove that he was a skilled painter, not just an interesting figure linked to the fame of Velázquez.
Before Fame
Juan de Pareja was born around 1606 in Antequera, a city in the province of Málaga in southern Spain. The exact details of his birth and how he came to be enslaved aren't well-documented, but slavery was common in early modern Spain, particularly in Andalusia, affecting people of North African and sub-Saharan African descent. It's thought that Pareja might have been of Moorish or mixed heritage, but there's not much historical evidence on this.
He likely came into Diego Velázquez's household in Seville, where Velázquez lived and worked before becoming a court painter in Madrid. There, Pareja learned from one of Spain's top painters, grinding pigments, preparing canvases, and closely watching the painting process. According to later stories, he secretly taught himself to paint, since Spanish law at the time didn't allow enslaved people to practice the arts. When Velázquez discovered Pareja's talent, he was reportedly impressed rather than upset.
Key Achievements
- Developed into a professional painter despite being legally barred from practicing art during his years of enslavement
- Served as the subject of one of Velázquez's most admired portraits, exhibited in Rome in 1650 to wide critical acclaim
- Obtained his legal freedom in 1650 through a formal deed of manumission granted by Diego Velázquez in Rome
- Produced The Calling of Saint Matthew (1661), a major religious work now permanently displayed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid
- Established himself as an independent working painter in seventeenth-century Spain, a rare achievement given his origins and background
Did You Know?
- 01.Velázquez's portrait of Pareja, painted in Rome around 1650, is now held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which acquired it in 1971 for what was then a record auction price for any painting.
- 02.When the portrait of Pareja was displayed at the Pantheon in Rome in 1650, fellow artists and critics reportedly used it as the standard against which all other works in the exhibition were measured.
- 03.The legal document freeing Pareja was signed in Rome on November 23, 1650, and stipulated that Pareja must continue to serve Velázquez for four more years before fully enjoying his liberty.
- 04.Pareja's painting The Calling of Saint Matthew, dated 1661, bears his signature and is one of the few works securely attributed to him, distinguishing it from the broader difficulties scholars face in cataloguing his output.
- 05.Pareja is believed to have been of Moorish descent, which places his life at the intersection of Spain's complex histories of race, religion, and social hierarchy in the early modern period.