Juan de Pareja: A Painter’s Story

Take a deep dive into the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s recently acquired painting, Dog with candles and lilies (early 1660s), by Spanish painter Juan de Pareja. Discover the complicated history of Pareja’s journey from enslaved painting assistant to Diego Velázquez, for whom he stretched canvases and ground paint, to a respected independent portrait painter in his own right. Thought to be a fragment of a larger portrait of Saint Dominic, the oil painting of a small dog with a lit candle in its mouth will be exhibited alone in the Davis Lab. Guests are invited to contemplate the artist’s remarkable story and share their thoughts in a written response station.

Photo credit line: Juan de Pareja (Spanish, 1606–1670), Dog with a Candle and Lilies, about 1660s, oil on canvas, 18-1/2 × 22-1/2 in. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, 2021.175. Image Courtesy of Robilant+Voena.