El retrato del esclavo Juan de Pareja: semejanza y conceptismo

Introduction

  • In 1971, the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the portrait of Juan de Pareja, a mulatto slave of Velázquez, justifying the purchase for its artistic quality.

  • This event culminated a legend around the work.

Origin of the Portrait

  • Antonio Palomino explains that the portrait was a study to exercise the hand before portraying Pope Innocent X.

  • The portrait was acclaimed in Rome, which led to Velázquez being admitted to the Roman Academy in 1650.

The Portrait in Context

  • Portraying a slave was unusual, needing justification.

  • The portrait shows the slave dressed nobly, with a lace collar and a defiant look.

  • No other true portraits of men of color in Spain at the time are known.

Juan Latino

  • Ximénez de Enciso included in his comedy Juan Latino (1652) an episode where the king orders a portrait of Juan Latino, a black man, to be included in the collection of «illustrious men».

  • The portrait symbolizes the culmination of the glory acquired by the humanist of color.

The Legend of the Portrait of Pareja

  • Palomino recognizes Pareja's quality as a «sharp painter,» although he does not consider him an «illustrious man.»

  • The existence of the portrait is justified to highlight the immense social distance between a slave and the Supreme Pontiff.

  • Palomino transfers the paradox of the «glory» achieved by the portrait of the slave.

Function of the Portrait

  • The opposition between the modesty of the slave and the greatness of the Pope prepares the essential function of the painting as a «demonstration piece.»

  • The portrait evolves from a «simple pictorial exercise» to a «pictorial prodigy.»

  • The legend develops in the painter's studio and the exhibition space.

  • Velázquez was accepted into the Congregazione de' Virtuosi del Pantheon in 1650 and exhibited the portrait in Santa Maria Rotonda.

Similarity and Reality

  • The legend of Velázquez's triumph is based on real events.

  • The simultaneous presentation of the portrait and the model suggests a manipulation of the likeness by Velázquez.

  • The portrait of the Pope deceives a servant in absentia of the Supreme Pontiff, while the portrait of Pareja leaves the viewing painters «astonished» in praesentia.

Conceptist Game

  • If Velázquez acted premeditatedly, we are facing a «conceptist» game orchestrated by the painter.

  • Both playful exercises, that of Poussin and that of Velázquez, have points in common.

  • Both painters took the representation by likeness to the highest possible degree.

Apotheosis of the Portrait

  • The exhibition of the Velázquez portrait under the dome of the Pantheon in Rome is the symptom of a new religion of the art of likeness.

  • In his name, even a slave can be the object of a celebrated image.

  • This legend is oriented to the mythification of Velázquez, in which the «prodigious portrait» participates.

The Legend of Pareja

  • Palomino presents a second legend about Pareja, who from a slave aspired to the condition of a free man and a painter.

  • Palomino mentions Pareja's condition as a slave, his racial belonging, and the color of his skin.

Lexical Coincidences

  • The mixed-race slave «grinds» (that is, «mixes» colors), «prepares» canvases, and the joint presentation of the portrait and the model «a-shadows» the spectators.

Slavery and Freedom

  • The antithesis slavery/freedom constitutes the basis of the legend of Juan de Pareja and is the equivalent on the social plane of the antithesis black/white.

  • The legend of Juan Latino is built around this double opposition.

  • The literature of the Spanish Golden Age denies the impossible and demonstrates that a black man can be bleached in the metaphysical realm.

The Account of Palomino

  • Palomino conceals the problem of color thanks to euphemism and ellipsis, to present it as a story of liberation.

  • Pareja's conquest of freedom is the result of his «good skill» and is only excusable for his noble objective.

  • Talent is considered a «gift from heaven.»

  • Palomino conceives the story of liberation as the story of the conquest of a new being and a second nature.

The Royal Intervention

  • In the case of Pareja, the process of mythification is supported by historical reality.

  • Pareja was not freed by order of the king in Madrid, but in Rome, in 1650, by the exclusive will of Velázquez.

  • Establishing a cause-and-effect relationship would be equivalent to giving the impact of the portrait the power to transform «misfortune» into «grace.»

The Free Artist

  • The first works with the signature of Juan de Pareja are from 1658.

  • Seventeen paintings are attributed to him, the most famous being The Vocation of Saint Matthew (1661).

  • In this painting, self-portrait and signature go hand in hand.

Analysis of Metalepsis

  • The person/character is located at the far left of the canvas, with the signed ticket in hand, just below a window.

  • The placement of this character under the light source encloses symbolic allusions.

Replacement of the Velázquez Work

  • It is a «replacement» of the Velázquez work.

  • After this exercise of «search and capture,» the story of a slave of uncertain color who wanted to be a painter has reached its end.

  • He himself has formed «a new being» and «another second nature.»