Juan de Pareja

Diego Velázquez completed this Juan de Pareja in 1650 in Rome. Pareja was Velázquez's enslaved assistant, of Moorish descent. The portrait's dignity and humanity astonished Roman viewers. Shortly after completing it, Velázquez freed Pareja, who became a painter himself.

The portrait captures Pareja's alert intelligence and self-possession. His fine lace collar and green-brown cloak suggest a man of substance, not servitude. Velázquez reportedly made this portrait as practice before painting Pope Innocent X. The Metropolitan Museum acquired it in 1971.