Porträt des Juan de Pareja

In 1650 Velázquez was in Rome, sent by the Spanish king to buy art, and he had a bigger job ahead of him than shopping. He was angling to paint the pope, Innocent X, and he needed to prove he could still handle a demanding sitter after years at court. So he warmed up on the man beside him every day, Juan de Pareja, who was enslaved in his household and ground his colours and prepared his canvases. Pareja was also learning to paint himself, and Velázquez freed him four years later. When the finished portrait went on show near the Pantheon, painters from across Europe came to look, and one line stuck to it. The other pictures in the room were art, they said, and this one alone was truth. You can see what they meant in the collar, worked in a few grey and white strokes that only resolve into lace when you step back.