Juan de Pareja, Once Enslaved 17th C. Artist Was Misunderstood for Centuries, Velazquez: Met Exhibit
This once enslaved 17th century artist was misunderstood for centuries. A new exhibition rewrites his story. CNN, April 6, 2023.
In 1650, the city of Rome was abuzz. The Spanish artist Diego Velázquez had just exhibited a portrait in the Pantheon's domed interior. His subject: Juan de Pareja, an Andalusian man who was enslaved and serving as Velázquez's studio assistant. Not only was a formal portrait of a man of African heritage exceedingly rare in Western art at the time, but the painting's likeness was so stunning that an early biographer of Velázquez wrote the artist sent Pareja around Rome, painting in hand, to show it off to his acquaintances. It was said they could not tell who appeared more real.
Pareja became an overnight celebrity. Soon after, he was freed from slavery and became an accomplished artist in his own right in Madrid. But he remains an elusive figure within art history, with details of his life prone to myth, his paintings often misattributed and no more than two of his works ever exhibited in the same place. [Juan de Pareja became "instantly famous" in this portrait by Diego Velázquez, while he was still enslaved.] Now, though, Pareja is receiving his largest show to date at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
"Juan de Pareja: Afro-Hispanic Painter" groups five of his paintings along with those from his contemporaries, and Velázquez, to show a fuller picture of his life. The artworks include Pareja's most famous painting, "The Calling of Saint Matthew," a 1661 religious scene in which he inserted a self-portrait making direct eye contact with viewers, a tradition incorporated into paintings by other Old Masters including Raphael and Velázquez.
"Our role here is to try to set a foundation — to open up paths for others to pursue, because actually, there's a huge amount more that I think can be known," said David Pullins, an associate curator of European paintings at the museum, of Pareja. "Hopefully, (the process of) filling out his life and biography will have only just begun." Correcting a major 'blind spot' Pareja may have become "instantly famous" thanks to Velázquez's portrait, but his visibility within the art world has waxed and waned over the centuries. Misunderstandings about his work have persisted, in part because he was treated more as "a curiosity of history" than an authentic artist, according to Pullins...
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/juan-de-pareja-met-museum-untold-art-history/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
