Works by two of Spain’s greatest artists are on view in the context of the artistic, religious and political climate in which they were created. The exhibition seeks to shed new light on this little known period of 23 years (1598 - 1621) during which Philip III ruled Spain, a period bracketed by the original late style of El Greco and the emergent naturalism in the work of the young Velázquez. Featured are 53 paintings, among them 11 works by El Greco and three early works by Velázquez. Also on view are works by lesser known yet highly accomplished artists, among them: Juan Bautista Maino, Juan Sánchez Cotán, Luis Tristán, and Gregorio Fernández.
Previously dismissed for its lack of artistic accomplishment, the reign of Philip III will here be examined through a new lens. The discovery of 13 inventories of the goods of the king’s favorite, Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, the Duke of Lerma, by co-curator Sarah Schroth, has put to rest the standard view of Spain during Philip III’s reign as a cultural backwater. These documents indicate that Lerma amassed an extraordinary collection of more than 2,000 paintings. Among them was the monumental Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid) that the Fleming Peter Paul Rubens painted while on a diplomatic mission to the Spanish court. The inventories also mention nearly 900 pieces of luxury glass, porcelain, ceramics, and redware that Lerma arranged in a camarín, or “little room.” On view in Durham are monumental altar pieces, life-size portraits, some of the earliest still-life paintings in Europe, full-length carved and painted wooden sculptures of Spanish mystics and more than 50 pieces of Spanish glass and ceramics.
The exhibition is thus divided into thematic sections: Late El Greco, Portraiture, Religion and the Court, Still Life and the Bodegón, and the Duke of Lerma’s camarín.
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University Web Site
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