Juan de Pareja

Juan de Pareja (born c. 1610, Antequera, Spain—died 1670, Madrid) was a Spanish painter and student of Diego Velázquez. Pareja initially assisted Velázquez in his studio as an enslaved person. Pareja accompanied Velázquez on his second visit to Italy (1649–51), where Velázquez painted Pareja’s portrait. The portrait was purchased at auction by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1970 for nearly $5.5 million, a record at the time. According to early writers, Pareja painted in...