Juan de Pareja : Afro-Hispanic painter in the age of Velazquez / David Pullins and Vanessa K. Valdes ; with essays by Luis Mendez Rodriguez and Erin Kathleen Rowe.
Publisher:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Copyright Date:
2023
Description:
175 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color map, portraits (chiefly color), facsimiles ; 27 cm
Printed in red and black. Includes bibliographical references (pages 160-172) and index
Contents:
Notes to the essays. Introduction: Paintings by Juan de Pareja / David Pullins. Juan de Pareja : a biographical sketch / David Pullins -- Enslaved artisanal labor in seventeenth-century Spain / Luis Mendez Rodriguez -- Creating Black Catholics : the artistic tools of conversion / Erin Kathleen Rowe -- Arturo Schomburg, Juan de Pareja, and Afro-Hispanic studies / Vanessa K. Valdes -- Reframing the age of Velazquez / David Pullins. I. Spain's multiracial society and enslaved labor ; II. Diego Velazquez and Juan de Pareja in Italy -- Paintings by Juan de Pareja / David Pullins. I. Firm attributions ; II. Possible atributions ; III. Works known only by text ; IV. Reattributions to other painters -- Notes to the essays.
Summary:
"This exhibition offers an unprecedented look at the life and artistic achievements of seventeenth-century Afro-Hispanic painter Juan de Pareja (ca. 1608-1670). Largely known today as the subject of The Met's iconic portrait by Diego Velazquez, Pareja was enslaved in Velazquez's studio for over two decades before becoming an artist in his own right. This presentation is the first to tell his story and examine the role of enslaved artisanal labor and a multiracial society in the art and material culture of Spain's so-called "Golden Age." Representations of Spain's Black and Morisco populations in works by Francisco de Zurbaran, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, and Velazquez join works that chart the ubiquity of enslaved labor across media, from sculpture to silver. The Met's portrait, executed by Velazquez in Rome in 1650, is contextualized by his other portraits from this period and the original document whereby Pareja was freed upon return to Madrid. The exhibition culminates in the first gathering of Pareja's rarely seen paintings, some of enormous scale, which engage with the canons of Western art while reverberating throughout the African diaspora. Harlem Renaissance collector and scholar Arturo Schomburg was vital to the recovery of Pareja's work and serves as a thread connecting seventeenth-century Spain with twentieth-century New York, providing a lens through which to view the multiple histories that have been written about Pareja."-- Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2023/juan-de-pareja
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.