I, Juan de Pareja

I, Juan de Pareja is a Newbery Medal Book for young adult readers in which the life and career of seventeenth-century Spanish court painter Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez is narrated by his slave and assistant Juan de Pareja.  Since there are not many written records that survive to tell us about Velázquez, the author relies heavily on his paintings to speak for him.  The excerpt presented here exemplifies this approach and offers readers the opportunity to examine the portraits described and consider for themselves how much a portrait may say about its subject.