Career
His 1661 work The Calling of Saint Matthew (sometimes also referred to as The Vocation of Street Matthew) is on display at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. De Pareja became Velazquez"s assistant sometime after the master returned to Madrid from his first trip to Italy in January 1631. After the death of Velazquez, Pareja became an assistant to painter Juan del Mazo.
He was described as a "Morisco," being "of mixed parentage and a strange color." At the time morisco had two possible meanings.
De Pareja was inherited by Velazquez and became an assistant in his painting after 1631. Velázquez later freed Pareja while they were in Rome during a trip to Italy in 1650.
Around the same time Velázquez painted Pareja"s portrait, which is now held in New New York The document of his manumission is held in the state archive of Rome.
