Juan de Pareja put his name inside one of his major paintings, literally. In The Calling of Saint Matthew (1661), now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, a man at the far left edge looks straight out at the viewer and holds up a sheet of paper. The Prado identifies him as the painter himself, and the paper carries his signature. For a designer, that is a lesson in authorship: the maker’s mark is not hidden in a corner but turned into a character in the scene.
His works are not among the public domain images of the Met, the Art Institute of Chicago or the Cleveland Museum of Art, so the key paintings are described here in text, with their locations. For public domain images from those collections, browse the MGD museum inspiration collection.
Who was Juan de Pareja?
Spanish scholarship places his birth in Antequera, in the diocese of Málaga, around 1610; the Metropolitan Museum of Art gives his dates as about 1608–1670 in the title of Velázquez’s portrait of him. The painter and biographer Antonio Palomino, writing in 1724, described him as being of mixed parentage.
When he joined Velázquez’s household is not recorded. By 1642 he was signing as a witness on legal documents for Velázquez in Madrid, and he witnessed further powers of attorney for the painter and his wife, Juana Pacheco, in 1647, according to the documents collected in the Corpus velazqueño.
In 1649 he travelled with Velázquez on the painter’s second journey to Italy. In Rome Velázquez painted his portrait, the half-length now at the Met, and exhibited it at the Pantheon in March 1650. On 23 November 1650, still in Rome, Velázquez signed a notarial deed of freedom for Pareja that was to take effect after four years, on condition that he did not run away or commit a crime in that time. The art historian Jennifer Montagu published the document, held in the Archivio di Stato in Rome, in the Burlington Magazine in 1983.
From the 1650s until his death in Madrid in 1670 he worked as an independent painter. The Met devoted an exhibition to him, Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter in the Age of Velázquez, from 3 April to 16 July 2023, with a catalogue by the curators David Pullins and Vanessa K. Valdés.
A portrait of him, not by him
The image most people know is Velázquez’s portrait of Juan de Pareja at the Met, dated 1650. It is a Velázquez: a picture of Pareja, not a picture by him. Our guide to Diego Velázquez discusses it and its muted palette.
Pareja’s own signed religious paintings are crowded, bright and theatrical by comparison. The Spanish art historian Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez described these compositions as completely foreign to Velázquez’s restraint, closer to the full Baroque of Madrid painters such as Francisco Rizi and Juan Carreño de Miranda.
Palomino also told a story that Pareja learned to paint in secret and revealed it by leaving a canvas turned against the studio wall for Philip IV to find, after which the king urged his release. Spanish historians treat this as a legend; the documented route to freedom is the 1650 deed.
Key works by Juan de Pareja
His known output is small. Paintings attributed to him in museum and scholarly sources include:
- The Flight into Egypt, 1658. Oil on canvas, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida. Signed and dated on a rock at the lower left.
- The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1661. Oil on canvas, about 225 × 325 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
- Portrait of the Architect José Ratés Dalmau. Oil on canvas, Museu de Belles Arts de València. Palomino singled it out as so close to Velázquez’s manner that many took it for his.
- The Baptism of Christ, 1667. Oil on canvas, about 230 × 356 cm, painted for the sacristy of the Trinitarian convent in Toledo and now in the Museo de Huesca on deposit from the Prado. Pérez Sánchez compared its colour to Tintoretto.
- Dog with a Candle and Lilies, 1660s. A signed fragment, now at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, cut from a larger painting of Saint Dominic, whose emblems are a dog with a torch and lilies.
What to look at: the divided stage
The Calling of Saint Matthew is built like a stage set with two zones. According to the art historian Carmen Fracchia, a marble column splits the picture: on one side Matthew’s office, dense with coins, pearls, books and richly dressed officials; on the other Christ and his followers, barefoot and plainly dressed, with a pale halo of light around Christ. Matthew sits near the column, at the hinge between the two halves.
That is a layout idea as much as a religious one. One strong vertical divides a busy side from a calm side, and the subject who must choose sits on the line. The same device works in a two-column layout, a before-and-after comparison or a book spread where the gutter plays the column.
Pareja also hangs a picture inside the picture: a painting of Moses and the brazen serpent on the back wall. A framed image within a composition adds a second message without adding words.
Colour and light: bright fields, white edges
In the Ringling’s Flight into Egypt the Virgin rides a donkey led by an angel, in a blue cloak over a red dress, with angels carrying palm fronds overhead. Writers on the painting, including the Met’s 2023 catalogue, point to his habit of edging bright colours with white highlights, so that forms glow at their contours rather than sinking into shadow.
The large Baptism of Christ pushes further towards Venetian painting, on a canvas more than three and a half metres wide.
For a designer, the takeaway is the edge treatment. A thin highlight along the rim of a shape separates it from a busy background without a hard outline. In flat illustration, a light inner stroke or a slight rim of a lighter tint does the same job. If you want to build a palette in this spirit, a saturated blue, a warm red and a cream highlight, try the colour palette generator.
The signature as a design element
Pareja signed in places that are easy to find. On the Flight into Egypt the inscription is carved onto a rock in the landscape. In the Calling of Saint Matthew it becomes a prop, a document in the hand of his own portrait. The Prado’s catalogue entry describes him looking out proudly at the viewer, holding the paper with his signature in his right hand.
Fracchia notes that he presents himself as a well-dressed gentleman with a sword. The design lesson is about how a mark is framed. A signature placed on an object inside the picture, a rock, a letter, a label, feels like part of the world of the image rather than a stamp added afterwards.
Where Juan de Pareja fits
Pareja worked in Madrid in the generation after Velázquez’s most productive years, among painters turning to large, colourful altarpieces. Our guide to Baroque art covers the wider style. For a Seville contemporary whose religious scenes took a softer, more atmospheric route, see our guide to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.
How designers can borrow Juan de Pareja’s ideas
- Split the field with one strong vertical. A column, a rule or a photo edge can divide busy content from calm content. Put the key element on the dividing line.
- Edge forms with light. A pale rim on a saturated shape separates it from its ground without a heavy outline.
- Make the maker’s mark part of the scene. Put a signature, logo or credit on an object inside the image instead of floating it in a corner.
- Use a picture within the picture. A framed image, poster or screen inside your composition can carry a second idea quietly.
- Credit carefully. When you reference the Velázquez portrait, name Velázquez as the painter and Pareja as the sitter.
Frequently asked questions
Who painted the portrait of Juan de Pareja at the Met?
Diego Velázquez painted it in Rome in 1650. It shows Pareja, but it is a work by Velázquez, not by Pareja.
What is Juan de Pareja known for?
For The Calling of Saint Matthew (1661, Museo del Prado), which includes his self-portrait holding his signature, as well as The Flight into Egypt (1658, Ringling Museum) and The Baptism of Christ (1667, Museo de Huesca).
When was Juan de Pareja freed?
Velázquez signed a deed of freedom for him in Rome on 23 November 1650, to take effect after four years. The document was published by Jennifer Montagu in 1983.
Where can you see paintings by Juan de Pareja?
In Madrid at the Museo del Prado, in Huesca at the Museo de Huesca, in Valencia at the Museu de Belles Arts, and in the United States at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.
