Velázquez was a member since at least the beginning of 1650. The Virtuosi were a congregation of artists, established in 1543, that had their headquarters at the Pantheon. Every year, on March 19, the feast of Saint Joseph, the Congregazione dei Virtuosi would organize an exhibition under the portico of the Pantheon in Rome. About this portrait (which was half-length and done from life) Andreas Schmidt, a Flemish painter in the Court who was in Rome at the time, used to tell that since for the feast of Saint Joseph it was the custom to decorate the cloister of the Pantheon (where Raphael of Urbino is buried) with famous pictures, both ancient and modern, this portrait was hung there, and it received such universal acclaim that in the opinion of all the painters of different nations everything else looked like painting, this alone like reality' (see Palomino 1724). Antonio Palomino, one of Velázquez’s biographers, recorded that while in Rome Velázquez 'made the portrait of Juan de Pareja, his slave and fine painter, which was so like him and so lively that, when he sent it by means of Pareja himself to some friends for their criticism, they just stood looking at the painted portrait and at the original in awe and wonder, not knowing to whom they should speak or who would answer them.

The portrait of Juan de Pareja is one of the most important and striking works documented during Velázquez’s second Italian trip. During his two years in Italy Velázquez produced some outstanding portraits of patrons and princes of the Church, including those of Cardinal Camillo Astalli (Hispanic Society, New York), Camillo Massimo (Kingston Lacy, Dorset) and Ferdinando Brandani (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid).

The main purpose of the trip was to buy paintings and sculptures for King Philip IV of Spain, and while he was in Rome, the painter also received the prestigious commission to portray Pope Innocent X (the canvas is now in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome). The Background: Between 16, Velázquez travelled to Italy for the second and last time in his life.

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