Juan de Pareja : Afro-Hispanic Painter in the Age of Velazquez

A provocative study of a freedman painter that recognizes the labor of enslaved artists and artisans in seventeenth-century Spain

Diego Velazquez's portrait of Juan de Pareja (ca. 1608-1670) has long been a landmark of European art, but this provocative study focuses on its subject: an enslaved man who went on to build his own successful career as an artist. This catalogue-the first scholarly monograph on Pareja- discusses the painter's ties to the Madrid School of the 1660s and revises our understanding of artistic production during Spain's Golden Age, with a focus on enslaved artists and artisans.

The authors illuminate the highly skilled labor within Seville's multiracial society; the role of Black saints and confraternities in the promotion of Catholicism among enslaved populations; and early twentieth-century scholar Arturo Schomburg's project to recover Pareja's legacy. The book also includes the first illustrated and annotated list of known works attributed to Pareja.

Exhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (April 3-July 16, 2023)

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