Juan de Pareja (c. 1606 in

Antequera Antequera () is a city and municipality in the Comarca de Antequera, province of Málaga, part of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is known as "the heart of Andalusia" (''el corazón de Andalucía'') because of its central locat ...

– 1670 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

) was a Spanish painter and slave, born in

, near

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most po ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. He is known primarily as a member of the household and workshop of painter

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

, who freed him in 1650. His 1661 work ''The Calling of Saint Matthew'' (sometimes also referred to as ''The Vocation of Saint Matthew'') is on display at the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

in Madrid, Spain.

Biography

Juan de Pareja was a Spaniard born into slavery in Southern Spain, probably in

in Malaga province around 1610. Little is known on his background although

Antonio Palomino Acislo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco (165513 April 1726) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period, and a writer on art, author of ''El Museo pictórico y escala óptica'', which contains a large amount of important biographical mate ...

describes him as a ''

morisco Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open ...

'' (convert from Islam), being "of mixed parentage and unusual color." The first known reference to Juan Pareja as a painter is in a letter addressed to Pedro Galindo, attorney of the city of

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

, written on 12 May 1630, in which Juan de Pareja requests permission to move to

in order to continue his studies together with his brother Jusepe. The authenticity of this document is questioned since within it he claims to be a free man and does not once mention Velázquez. It is unknown at what time he began serving

. In 1642 he signed as a witness in a power of attorney for Velázquez in a lawsuit against scribes in the criminal court. He was also a witness in October and December 1647, for two other powers of attorney to manage his assets in Seville granted by Velázquez and his wife Juana Pacheco. He would again sign a similar document in 1653 for Francisca Velázquez, daughter of the painter. In 1649 he accompanied Velázquez on his second trip to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. This is where Velázquez painted his famous painting "Portrait of Juan de Pareja", currently in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

of New York. The painting was exposed in the Pantheon of Rome in March 1650 during the festivities in honor of the Patron of the Virtuosos of the Pantheon, which Velázquez had recently joined. On 23 November, while still in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Velázquez granted him a letter of freedom, which would come into effect after four years on the condition that he did not escape or commit any criminal act in that period. The document of his

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...

, discovered by

Jennifer Montagu Jennifer Iris Rachel Montagu (born 20 March 1931) is a British art historian with emphasis in the study of Italian Baroque sculpture. Early life Montagu is a daughter of Ewen Montagu, a British judge, writer and Naval intelligence officer. She ...

, is held in the Archivio di Stato in Rome. From then on until his death in

he worked as an independent painter, demonstrating knowledge acquired in Velazquez's workshop, where he likely had wider responsibilities than Palomino suggests, as well as his knowledge of various other Spanish and Italian painters.

In fiction

* In 1965, Elizabeth Borton de Treviño published a fictionalized autobiography entitled ''I, Juan de Pareja'', that presents imagined details into the lives of both painters.

Works

*''Portrait of Agustín Moreto'' (1648–53), oil on canvas, Lazaro Galdiano Foundation,

Madrid, Spain Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

*''Portrait of a Monk'' (1651), oil on canvas,

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...

Saint Petersburg, Russia Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

*''The Flight into Egypt (1658),

John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the official state art museum of Florida, located in Sarasota, Florida. It was established in 1927 as the legacy of Mable Burton Ringling and John Ringling for the people of Florida. Florida State Univ ...

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

'' *''The Calling of Saint Matthew'' (also known as ''The Vocation of Saint Matthew)'' (1661), oil on canvas,

*''Saints John the Evangelist and Orontius'', Augustine Collection, Madrid, Spain *''The Lady of Guadalupe'', Augustine Collection, Madrid, Spain *''Portrait of the Architect José Ratés Dalmau,'' oil on canvas (116 x 97 cm), Museu de Belles Arts de València, Spain *''Portrait of Philip IV, King of Spain'' (c.1656), oil on canvas,

Columbia Museum of Art The Columbia Museum of Art is an art museum in the American city of Columbia, South Carolina. History The Columbia Museum of Art was originally in the 1908 private residence of the city's Taylor family. Located on Senate Street in Columbia, adj ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

*''El bautismo de Cristo (1667), Museo de Huesca/Museo del Prado, Huesca, Spain''

Works depicting Pareja

*''

Portrait of Juan de Pareja The ''Portrait of Juan de Pareja'' is a painting by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez of his slave Juan de Pareja, a notable painter in his own right, who was owned by Velázquez at the time the painting was completed. Velázquez painted the portr ...

'' (1648), by Diego Vélazquez,

, United States *''Portrait of Juan de Pareja Repairing a Mandolin String (1960),'' by

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

s, United States *''The Calling of Saint Matthew'' by Juan de Pareja, who painted himself as the leftmost figure (1661), oil on canvas,

Gallery

File:Agustín Moreto por Juan Pareja.jpg, ''Portrait of

Agustín Moreto Agustín is a Spanish given name and sometimes a surname. It is related to Augustín. People with the name include: Given name * Agustín (footballer), Spanish footballer * Agustín Calleri (born 1976), Argentine tennis player * Agustín C� ...

'', (c.1648-53), 102 x 69 cm, Museum of Lázaro Galdiano File:Juan de Pareja - Portrait of a Monk - WGA17015.jpg, ''Portrait of a Monk'' (1651), 92 x 77 cm, Hermitage Museum File:The Flight Into Egypt.jpg, ''The Flight into Egypt'', (1658), 168.9 x 125.4 cm, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida File:Pareja-bautismo.JPG, ''El bautismo de Cristo'', (1667) 230 x 356 cm, Museo de Huesca/Museo del Prado File:Pareja-jose rates.jpg, ''Portrait of José Ratés Dalmau'', (c.1660), 116.9 x 97.8 cm, Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia. File:Pareja-vocacion mateo.jpg, ''The Calling of Saint Matthew'', (1661), 225 x 325 cm, Prado Museum

Notes

Sources

* * * * (Juvenile novel.)

External links

Juan de Pareja on artcyclopediaJuan de Pareja at the Museo del Prado.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pareja, Juan de 1606 births 1670 deaths People from Antequera 17th-century Spanish painters Spanish male painters Spanish people of African descent Spanish slaves 17th-century slaves Spanish portrait painters