Juan de Pareja

Information about Juan de Pareja

Portrait of Juan de Pareja
Diego Velázquez, c. 1650
Oil on canvas
81.3 × 69.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Juan de Pareja (1610-1670), a native of Seville and mulatto son of a female slave, is primarily known as a member of the household and workshop of painter Diego Velázquez. He was also a painter in his own right, but never rose to the level of his teacher and seems to have executed only minor works.

Velázquez's Juan de Pareja

In 1648, as court painter to Philip IV of Spain, Diego Velázquez was sent to Rome to purchase works of art for the Alcázar in Madrid, and he brought Juan de Pareja with him. During his stay in Rome, Velázquez executed an oil portrait of Juan de Pareja, which was displayed as part of a larger exhibition of paintings at the Pantheon on March 19, 1650. According to Antonio Palomino's biography of Velázquez, the painting "was generally applauded by all the painters from different countries, who said that the other pictures in the show were art but this one alone was 'truth'."

Velázquez painted the Juan de Pareja as an exercise in preparation for his official portrait of Pope Innocent X. The Pope, a ruddy-faced man who would be depicted in the bright pink and crimson robes of his office, presented a tricky study in both color and composition. Additionally, since he would be executing a portrait from life, Velázquez would be forced to work quickly while still capturing the essence of Innocent X's character. The Juan de Pareja reflects Velázquez's exploration of the difficulties he would encounter in the Pope's portrait. To compensate for a restricted palette of colors, Velázquez adopted a loose, almost impressionistic style of brushwork to bring an intense vitality to his subject -- a style which would make both the Juan de Pareja and the subsequent portrait of Innocent X two of the most renowned paintings of his career.

The Juan de Pareja is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which purchased it in 1971. At the time, the purchase price of over $5.5 million set a new record for paintings at auction. This became a source of some controversy both for the museum and for its director, Thomas Hoving, who spearheaded the effort to acquire the work and considered it one of the finest paintings in the museum's collection. However, art prices have skyrocketed since the mid-1970s, and the Juan de Pareja could be expected to fetch easily ten times its purchase price today.

References

  • Hoving, Thomas (1993). Making the Mummies Dance. Simon and Schuster. 
  • Palomino, Antonio (1724). El Museo pictorico y escala optica. 
  • de Treviño, Elizabeth (1965). I, Juan de Pareja. Bell Books. ASIN B0006BN0A0. 

External links

Diego Velázquez

Self portrait of Diego Velázquez, painted around 1643. Uffizi gallery, Florence, Italy
Birth name Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez
May 6 1599(1599--)
Seville, Andalusia
..... Click the link for more information.
16th century - 17th century - 18th century
1620s  1630s  1640s  - 1650s -  1660s  1670s  1680s
1647 1648 1649 - 1650 - 1651 1652 1653

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that bound with medium of drying oil — especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil, such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense, these were called 'varnishes' and were
..... Click the link for more information.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Established 1872
Location 5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York
Visitor figures 4 million/year
Director Philippe de Montebello
Website www.metmuseum.
..... Click the link for more information.
City of New York
New York City at sunset

Flag
Seal
Nickname: The Big Apple, Gotham, The City that Never Sleeps
Location in the state of New York
Coordinates:
..... Click the link for more information.
16th century - 17th century - 18th century
1580s  1590s  1600s  - 1610s -  1620s  1630s  1640s
1607 1608 1609 - 1610 - 1611 1612 1613

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
Seville / Sevilla

The Alamillo Bridge spans the Guadalquivir river.

Flag Coat of Arms
NO8DO
("From Andalusian: "No ma dejado" - I was not abandoned")
Location

Coordinates
..... Click the link for more information.
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.
This article has been tagged since September 2007.

..... Click the link for more information.
Diego Velázquez

Self portrait of Diego Velázquez, painted around 1643. Uffizi gallery, Florence, Italy
Birth name Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez
May 6 1599(1599--)
Seville, Andalusia
..... Click the link for more information.
Philip IV (Felipe IV), (8 April, 1605 – 17 September, 1665) was King of Spain from 1621 to 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands and also King of Portugal (as Philip III) until 1640.
..... Click the link for more information.
Comune di Roma

Flag
Seal
Nickname: "The Eternal City"
Motto: "Senatus Populusque Romanus" (SPQR)   (Latin)
..... Click the link for more information.
alcázar is a Spanish castle, from the Arabic word القصر al qasr meaning palace or fortress. Many cities in Spain have an alcázar.
..... Click the link for more information.
Madrid
Puerta de Alcalá at night with El Retiro gardens in the background.

Flag
Coat of arms
Motto: De Madrid al Cielo
(Spanish for "From Madrid to Heaven")
Location
..... Click the link for more information.
The Pantheon (Latin Pantheon[1], from Greek Πάνθεον Pantheon, meaning "Temple of all the gods") is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state
..... Click the link for more information.
March 19 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
..... Click the link for more information.
16th century - 17th century - 18th century
1620s  1630s  1640s  - 1650s -  1660s  1670s  1680s
1647 1648 1649 - 1650 - 1651 1652 1653

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
The Portrait of Pope Innocent X is a famous portrait by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, which he finished during a trip to Italy around 1650. Many artists and art critics consider it the finest portrait ever created. It is housed in the Galleria Doria Pamphili in Rome.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Established 1872
Location 5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York
Visitor figures 4 million/year
Director Philippe de Montebello
Website www.metmuseum.
..... Click the link for more information.
City of New York
New York City at sunset

Flag
Seal
Nickname: The Big Apple, Gotham, The City that Never Sleeps
Location in the state of New York
Coordinates:
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s  1950s  1960s  - 1970s -  1980s  1990s  2000s
1968 1969 1970 - 1971 - 1972 1973 1974

Year 1971 (MCMLXXI
..... Click the link for more information.
Thomas P.F. Hoving (born January 15, 1931), is an American museum executive and consultant and the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Biography

He was born in New York City to Walter and Mary (Osgood Field) Hoving.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.