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I, Juan de Pareja: The Story of a Great Painter and the Slave He Helped Become a Great Artist

Amazon.com Price:  $3.55 (as of 05/05/2019 07:04 PST- Details)

Description

When the great Velázquez used to be painting his masterpieces on the Spanish court within the seventeenth century, his colors were expertly mixed and his canvases carefully prepared by his slave, Juan de Pareja. In a vibrant novel which depicts both the beauty and the cruelty of the time and place, Elizabeth Borton de Treviño tells the story of Juan, who used to be born a slave and died an accomplished and respected artist.

Upon the death of his indulgent mistress in Seville, Juan de Pareja used to be uprooted from the one home he had known and placed within the charge of a vicious gypsy muleteer to be sent north to his mistress’s nephew and heir, Diego Velázquez, who recognized at once the intelligence and gentle breeding which have been to make Juan his indispensable assistant and companion―and his lifelong friend.

Through Juan’s eyes the reader sees Velázquez’s delightful circle of relatives, his working habits and the character of the man, his relations with the shy yet devoted King Philip IV and with his fellow painters, Rubens and Murillo, the climate and customs of Spanish court life. When Velázquez discovers that he and Juan share a love for the art which is his very life, the painter proves his friendship in essentially the most implausible fashion, for in those days it used to be forbidden by law for slaves to be informed or practice the arts. In the course of the hardships of voyages to Italy, In the course of the illnesses of Velázquez, Juan de Pareja loyally serves until the death of the painter in 1660.

I, Juan de Pareja is the winner of the 1966 Newbery Medal.

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