Listening to Juan de Pareja: An Ecocritical Approach to Baroque Portraiture and Material

In this presentation, I will establish an ecocritical methodology to analyze Velázquez’s portrait of his enslaved assistant Juan de Pareja (1650); paintings by de Pareja after he was granted his freedom from Velázquez; and material (metal) decorative objects from the Spanish Baroque period. Inspired by the exhibition Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter (The Met, New York, April 3–July 16, 2023), I will argue that historiographical analysis can illuminate areas of art history that have not been given a level of attention that other more popular areas have received.

I will ask and explore questions such as: What can be gained by applying Tina Kampt’s concept of “audible frequency” (Listening to Images, 2017) to Velázquez’s portrait of de Pareja? How do material and representation embody and convey value in de Pareja’s The Calling of Saint Matthew (1661) if we are to consider value through Fred Moten’s writing on Marxist materialism ("Resistance of the Object: Aunt Hester's Scream", 2003) or Fred Wilson’s striking juxtaposition of material both as decorative arts and slave shackles (Metalwork, 1793-1880, Mining the Museum, 1991)?

In addition to providing biographical information and art historical analysis, I will argue that works of the Baroque era occupy a type of ecology connecting the late Renaissance and pre-Enlightenment to our current moment. Reconsiderations of art, race, and ecology in the field is crucial as we are currently living through the Sixth Mass Extinction.