Books with title I, Juan De Pareja

In the era of Rembrandt, Rubens, and Van Dyke, Spain had its own great painter: Diego Velasquez. His assistant is an African slave, Juan, who, by helping his master in his studio in the preparation of paints and stretching of canvasses, becomes an artist himself. Self-taught by watching his master's technique, he is torn between the need to keep his secret, for such work as the creation of art is forbidden to slaves, and the desire to reveal his own talents.

When the great Velaquez was painting his masterpieces at the Spanish court in the seventeenth century, his colors were expertly mixed and his canvases carefully prepared by his Negro slave, Juan de Pareja. In this vibrant novel that depicts both the beauty and the cruelty of the time and place, Elizabeth Borton de Trevino tells the story of Juan, who was born a slave and died an accomplished and respected artist.