Brisbane to host Spanish exclusive
29/05/2012
Goya y Lucientes, Francisco
de | María Antonia Gonzaga,
marquesa viuda de Villafranca
c. 1795 | Collection: Museo
Nacional del Prado, Madrid
|
In yet another Australian coup, Brisbane prepares to host ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado’, an exhibition of more than 100 masterpieces from Madrid’s Museo Nacional del Prado, to be shown exclusively at the Queensland Art Gallery from July 21 to November 4.
The Museo Nacional del Prado, Spain’s national art museum, holds one of the most significant collections of European painting in the world. ‘Portrait of Spain’ is the first exhibition from the Prado ever to be shown in Australia, and represents the largest group of works the museum has ever lent to a foreign museum.
Curated by Javier Portús Pérez, Head of the Department of Spanish Painting (to 1700), Museo Nacional del Prado, this extensive exhibition will explore the history of painting in Spain over three and a half centuries, highlighting the internal and external factors that influenced the evolution of Spanish painting between 1550 and 1900.
Presented as various chapters of Spain’s history, the exhibition will include magnificent Royal portraits, large scale history paintings, religious pictures, mythological scenes and intimate still lifes.
‘Portrait of Spain’ will bring to Australia work by artists who played central roles in the history of European painting, including Spanish, Italian, Flemish and French artists who worked for the Spanish Royal Court.
The exhibition will explore the political and cultural forces that have influenced the development of modern Spain, and reveal how modern Spanish identity was formulated over 350 years.
Artists represented include EL GRECO, Vecellio di Gregorio TIZIANO (TITIAN), Peter Paul RUBENS, Michel-Ange HOUASSE, Anton Rafael MENGS, Francisco de ZURBARÁN, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y VELÁZQUEZ, Bartolomé Esteban MURILLO, Juan CARREÑO DE MIRANDA, Luis MELÉNDEZ, Francisco de GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Federico de MADRAZO Y KUNTZ, Mariano FORTUNY MARSAL and Joaquín SOROLLA Y BASTIDA.
The exhibition is presented by the Queensland Art Gallery and Art Exhibitions Australia, in partnership with the Museo Nacional Del Prado.
For more information, visit
qagoma.qld.gov.au