Which of Diego Velazquez's paintings are you?

[Nibelungenlied]

You are JUAN DE PAREJA. (1650) As court painter to King Philip IV of Spain, Velazquez was sent in 1648 to Rome, then the center of the international art world, where he made two of his greatest portraits, one of Pope Innocent X (Doria Pamphili Gallery, Rome) and this one, of his studio assistant Juan de Pareja, a Sevillian of Moorish descent. When the picture was exhibited at the Pantheon in 1650, one connoisseur remarked that while all the rest was art, this alone was truth.The son of Moorish indentured servants (in other words, slaves), Juan de Pareja's (1610-1670) was apparently left to Diego Velzquez in a will, as property. He acted as a personal assistant to Velzquez, and in the studio he ground pigments and stretched canvases.Velzquez would never let the slave even pick up a paintbrush, but the Moor watched and learned in the master's studio, and practiced drawing in secret.According to legend, on an occasion when Velzquez's patron, the king of Spain, was due to visit, Pareja placed one of his own paintings where it would be seen by him. When the king came across it, Pareja threw himself at the king's feet, told him how he had learned to paint without his master's knowledge, and begged him to intercede on his behalf. The king voiced the opinion that "any man who has this skill cannot be a slave," at which point Velzquez had little option but to grant Pareja his freedom.Another version of events has Pareja being given the gift of his freedom in return for his friendship and support following the death of Velzquez's wife.In any case, Juan de Pareja was granted his freedom in 1654 and stayed on in Velzquez's studio, painting openly and quickly becoming an artist of considerable talent.You have talent and you know it. Don't let anything obscure that. With an inquisitive mind such as yours, anything is possible.

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