Portrait of Juan de Pareja

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Portrait of Juan de Pareja (Diego Velázquez)
Portrait of Juan de Pareja
Diego Velázquez , 1650
Oil on Ln
81.3 x 69.9 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art , Washington DC

The portrait of Juan de Pareja is a painting by Diego Velázquez from 1650. It depicts Juan de Pareja, who lived in Velázquez's household and worked in the workshop.

Historical background

In 1649 Velázquez traveled a second time to Italy to buy paintings and sculptures for King Philip and to have casts of ancient sculptures made. He left Madrid in November 1649 in the entourage of the Duke of Nájera , who was supposed to pick up Philip's niece Maria Anna of Austria in Trento , whom Philip wanted to marry for the second time. Velázquez's company was also accompanied by his colleague Juan de Pareja , who had lived as a slave in the painter's household since his youth. Juan de Pareja was born in Antequera , near Málaga. He was a mulatto of Moorish origin; Velázquez probably inherited him from a relative. According to the treaty dated November 23, 1650, Velázquez released Pareja. The contract stipulated that Pareja would work for him for another four years. However, Pareja lived in his household until Velázquez's death and then in the house of Juan Bautista Mazo , Velázquez's son-in-law. The document documenting the release is kept in the Roman State Archives.

Velázquez worked on Pareja's portrait from July 10, 1649 to March 15, 1650. The picture was publicly exhibited in the portico of the Pantheon on March 19, the Joseph Festival, at which the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Panteon , to which Velázquez recently belonged, traditionally held an exhibition. As Antonio Palomino reports, the painting caused a sensation among artists and art lovers in Rome and gave Velázquez access to Pope Innocent . In the spring of the same year, the commission was given to paint the Pope.

description

Velázquez painted Juan de Pareja, who looks the viewer in the eye with an intense gaze, as a chest piece and in a three-quarter profile in front of a diffuse, architecturally indefinite background. His proud, self-confident demeanor, the almost haughty look from his dark eyes, corresponds more to the pose of a courtier or a well-established patrician than that of a slave. He has thrown a wide cloak elegantly over his doublet and shoulder, and his white collar is lined with delicate, feathery Flemish lace. However, his sleeve seems to have a hole at elbow height so that a white undergarment can flash out. A strong light falls directly from the front of the sitter and creates light and bronze-colored reflections on the dark skin. The lush, curly hair and the chin and mustache are jet black. Although the clothing is made exclusively in finely graduated, dark olive-green tones, the figure stands out sharply against the paler, similar-colored background.

Provenance

The picture remained in Rome after Velázquez left. According to Francisco Preciado de la Vega (1712–1789) a portrait of Parejas was in the possession of Cardinal Trajano d'Acquaviva (1694–1747), although it is not certain whether it was the original or a replica. In Italy the picture changed hands a few times. Around 1798 it was in the possession of the British Ambassador in Naples, Sir William Hamilton , who took it with him to London. Hamilton sold the picture on March 17, 1801 for 39 guineas to the antiquarian and art patron Thomas Lister Parker (1779-1858). In 1814 the painting went to the 2nd Earl of Radnor and remained in the family's possession until 1970. On November 27, Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 8th Earl of Radnor, had it auctioned at Christie's in London, where it was acquired through Wildenstein for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Washington.

At the time, the purchase price of over $ 5.5 million beat the record that a picture could set in an auction and brought the head of the museum, Thomas Hoving , into public criticism. To finance this, Hoving had Bilder - u. a. by van Gogh and Rousseau - sold. The rest of the purchase price was raised by private donors.

Replicas

Four copies of the portrait are known. A slightly smaller variant is owned by the Hispanic Society in New York, which may have been painted by Pareja himself. The portrait, in the collection of Captain JB Blackett in Arbigland House , Dumfries, Scotland, was sold at Christie's on May 29, 1992. A 19th century copy was in the Peruvian Embassy in Washington. The further whereabouts are not known. A third, slightly larger copy has been in the Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret in Nice since 1903 .

literature

A detailed list of sources and references for the picture is available online on the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art [1]

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Collection online . Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  2. ↑ Vivian R. Johnson: Juan de Pareja. Discovering a slave artists masterpiece , accessed May 8, 2019
  3. ↑ The document was discovered by Jennifer Montagu. The Burlington Magazine . Vol. 125, 1983. pp. 683-4
  4. ↑ Vivian R. Johnson: Juan de Pareja. Discovering an slave artist's masterpiece , accessed May 8, 2019
  5. ↑ Lopez-Rey Vol. 2, 1996. Cat. No. 112.
  6. ^ Antonio Palomino: El Museo pictórico y escala óptica. 1724.
  7. ↑ Randy Kennedy: Thomas Hoving, Remaker of the Met, Dies at 78 In: The New York Times. December 10, 2009. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  8. ^ MMA, object information accessed on July 18, 2015.