Last week I blogged about Velazquez and how much I loved his paintings. Today’s post is about his slave (yeah, I know, slave). His name was Juan de Pareja (1606 – 1670). Call him an indentured servant if you want, but the man was effectively Velazquez’s slave in that he was not at liberty to leave. For years, Pareja prepared brushes, ground pigments, and stretched canvasses for the artist. While he was at it, Pareja observed his master carefully, and secretly taught himself how to use the materials, and how to paint.

Pareja was referred to as a “Morisco” in Spanish. One way to translate the word is that he had mixed parentage (the offspring of a European Spaniard and a person of African descent–once described as a mulatto, which is today a derogatory word). Another way to translate the word is that he was a Moor—someone descended from Muslims who had remained in Spain after its conquest by Ferdinand and Isabella. I’m going with “a man of Moorish descent.”

In 1650, Velazquez was preparing to paint a portrait of Pope Innocent X. As practice, he painted Pareja, who had accompanied the artist to Italy. Here is the portrait:It’s a pretty amazing picture, isn’t it? (If you couldn’t tell, I’m in a major Velazquez admiration phase.) Velazquez got all sorts of props for it from the artists in Rome–he was even elected into the Academy of St. Luke.

I haven’t been able to verify the story, but according to some sources, Velazquez would not allow Pareja to pick up a paintbrush. But according to the story, one day, when King Philip IV was due to visit Velazquez, Pareja placed one of his own paintings where the king would see it. When the king admired it, believing it to be by Velazquez, Pareja threw himself at the king’s feet and begged for the King to intercede for him. Whether or not that story is true, Pareja did become an accomplished painter, and impressed the king so much that he ordered Pareja freed.

Pareja remained with the artist’s family until his death.

It was hard to find examples of his paintings, but here are two that I believe are attributed to him. Sorry the quality isn’t very good.

The figure on the far left certainly looks like Pareja did a self portrait, doesn’t it?