1650, Diego Velazquez, Portrait of Juan de Pareja -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Shortly after arriving in Rome, according to an early biography, Velázquez "made the portrait of Juan de Pareja, his slave and a fine painter, which was so like him and so lively that, when he sent it by means of Pareja himself to some friends for their criticism, they just stood looking at the portrait in admiration and wonder, not knowing to whom they should speak or who would answer them."
When Velázquez showed this landmark work at an exhibition at the Pantheon in March 1650, it "received such universal acclaim that in the opinion of all the painters of different nations everything else looked like painting, this alone like truth." It also raises questions about the relationship between portraitist and sitter when one is legally owned by the other: the processes of objectification and commodification inherent to artists' work with live models become disturbingly literal. Pareja's self-portrait can be found in The Calling of Saint Matthew (1661), on view later in this exhibition.
1650, Diego Velazquez, Portrait of Juan de Pareja -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Shortly after arriving in Rome, according to an early biography, Velázquez "made the portrait of Juan de Pareja, his slave and a fine painter, which was so like him and so lively that, when he sent it by means of Pareja himself to some friends for their criticism, they just stood looking at the portrait in admiration and wonder, not knowing to whom they should speak or who would answer them."
When Velázquez showed this landmark work at an exhibition at the Pantheon in March 1650, it "received such universal acclaim that in the opinion of all the painters of different nations everything else looked like painting, this alone like truth." It also raises questions about the relationship between portraitist and sitter when one is legally owned by the other: the processes of objectification and commodification inherent to artists' work with live models become disturbingly literal. Pareja's self-portrait can be found in The Calling of Saint Matthew (1661), on view later in this exhibition.