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Portrait of Juan de Pareja
Diego Velázquez · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599–1660)
- Date
- 1650
- Dimensions
- 81.3 x 69.9 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
This portrait shows Juan de Pareja, a man of African and Spanish descent, with dark curly hair, a moustache and a lace collar, turning his head towards us with a proud, steady gaze. He wears a simple dark green doublet against a plain grey-green background.
A closer look
Pareja was enslaved in Velázquez's household and worked as his studio assistant, grinding pigments and preparing canvases. Velázquez painted this portrait in Rome in 1650, and when it was exhibited in the Pantheon it was praised by artists as more lifelike than any other painting there. The brushwork is extraordinarily free, especially in the collar and sleeve, yet the face is vividly present, dignified and self-assured. In the same year, Velázquez signed a document granting Pareja his freedom, effective four years later; Pareja went on to become a painter in his own right.
More by Diego Velázquez
In this gallery
The Surrender of Breda
Portrait of Innocent X
Las Meninas
Old Woman Frying Eggs
The Rokeby Venus (The Toilet of Venus)
The Spinners (The Fable of Arachne)