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 First edition | |
| Author | Elizabeth Borton de Treviño |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | June 1965 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 192 |
I, Juan de Pareja is a novel by American writerElizabeth Borton de Treviño, which won theNewbery Medal for excellence in Americanchildren's literature in1966.
The book is based on thePortrait of Juan de Pareja, the real-life portrait thatDiego Velázquez made of his slaveJuan de Pareja. It is written in the first person as by the title character de Pareja, a half-African slave of Velázquez's.
Juan de Pareja is born into slavery in Seville, Spain in the early 1600s, and after the death of his mother when he is just five years old he becomes the pageboy of a wealthy Spanish lady, Emilia. At the end of the first chapter, both Doña Emilia and Juan's master die. Brother Isidro saves Juan from death and brings him to a group of people. They hand him off to a man named Don Carmelo to deliver him to Emilia's nephew, Don Diego Velázquez.
Diego has a wife, Juana de Miranda, and two little girls, Paquita and Ignacia. Juan's main job is to help his master with his work of painting: grinding the pigments, placing the paints on the palette, washing the brushes, and making the canvas frames. Although he is regularly present when Diego paints, Juan is not allowed to paint as he is a slave and the Spanish laws forbid it.
Two students, Cristobal and Alvaro, join the household as Diego's apprentices. Juan dislikes Cristobal, whose opinions do not differ from his master and his family's, but finds Alvaro pleasant enough. Diego is invited to paint the king's portrait. He and his family and Juan and the apprentices move to the living quarters on the palace grounds. When an artist namedPeter Paul Rubens visits, Juan falls in love with a slave girl named Miri. Juan accompanies Diego to Italy, where he begins to purchase art supplies to try painting and drawing on his own while keeping it a secret from the Velázquezes. Paquita falls in love with an apprentice namedJuan Bautista del Mazo and they marry.
During a hunting expedition, Juan saves the king's hound by treating him with herbal medicine. Juan gets to know the king's court entertainers, many of whom are dwarves. WhenBartolomé Esteban Murillo of Seville becomes Diego's apprentice, he treats Juan as a friend. During their visits to Church, when Juan declines theEucharist, Murillo asks what is the matter, and Juan replies he has been feeling guilty about breaking the law and master's trust by painting. Murillo does not believe painting to be a sin, but recommends Juanconfess to a priest about stealing their master's paints, and that he should wait for an appropriate time to tell his master that he has been painting.
On Diego and Juan's second visit to Italy, Diego falls ill from seasickness and his hand becomes unsteady; he wonders if he can paint anymore. Juan prays for him to get well. When Diego is asked to paint aportrait of Pope Innocent X, he paints Juan as practice, and Juan uses the portrait to acquire commissions from other Italian noblemen. Returning to Spain, Juan meetsJuana de Miranda's new slave named Lolis, whom he finds attractive.
In one of the routine visits by the king, Juan eventually reveals that he has been painting, but Diego writes a note that makes Juan a free man and his Assistant. Juan asks for Lolis' hand in marriage, which prompts Juana to write a similar note freeing Lolis. Paquita dies giving birth to her stillborn second child, while Juana dies from an illness two months later. Diego paintsportraits and settings for thewedding by proxy of the king's sister InfantaMaria Teresa to KingLouis XIV of France. Diego falls ill, and despite recovering briefly, he dies; the king has Juan help him paint across on Diego's self-portrait inLas Meninas, posthumously bestowing him theOrder of Santiago honor. Juan and Lolis return to Seville, where he takes up studio residence with Murillo and their family.
In addition to winning the Newbery Medal, the novel received positive reception from theSchool Library Journal,The Horn Book Magazine,The New York Times, and other outlets.[1] In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1966 to 1975, children's authorJohn Rowe Townsend wrote, "One might suspect that the book reflects in part a well-meant, but no longer acceptable, view of a black man as being a white man under the skin; for whom the brightest prospect is that of raising himself into acceptance by his former superiors."[2]
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Newbery Medal recipient 1966 | Succeeded by |
