The Jíbaro Masquerade: Luis Paret y Alcázar’s Self-Portrait of 1776

Abstract

Luis Paret y Alcázar’ Self-Portrait of 1776 shows the Spanish artist standing before the tranquil yet rugged Puerto Rican landscape dressed as a local peasant or jíbaro. Wearing a white shirt, striped pants, and flowered hat, he carries a bunch of plantains and a machete. The artist constructs a vision of himself as a Puerto Rican peasant, the jíbaro. The use of the jíbaro’s attire by Paret y Alcázar can be understood within the context of the carnivalesque in which the upper-class masqueraded as peasants. The painting also reveals the intellectual elite’s appropriation and subsequent adoption of the jíbaro as cultural symbol. The work was produced after Paret y Alcázar’s removal from the Spanish court of Carlos III and his exile to the island of Puerto Rico from 1775 to 1778. The self-portrait, later sent to the Bourbon monarchy as a gift, was pivotal in securing not only the painter’s return to the Spanish court but also the continued success of his professional career by communicating important cultural and political implications.