From Velazquez to Murillo - The Golden Century of Spanish Paintings in the Hermitage Collection. The 16th-17th Centuries Spanish Paintings from the Hermitage Collection
Castle of the Visconti, Pavia, Italy
9 October 2009 - 17 January 2010
67 exhibits

9 October 2009, From Velazquez to Murillo - The Golden Century of Spanish Paintings in the Hermitage Collection exhibition opened in Pavia at the Castle of the Visconti Museum. Forty-five canvases of Spanish painters are exhibited there; the Hermitage collection of Spanish paintings has never been presented in Europe in such great number. Famous works of great masters - Ribera, Zurbaran, Velazquez, Murillo - as well as little known painting from the fund have been included in the exhibition.

Spanish paintings are presented in a rather full panorama by means of creative work of painters of the end of the 16th century (Juan Fernandez de Navarrete (El Mudo), Luis de Carvajal, Francisco Ribalta), of the first half of the 17th century (Francisco Collantes, Juan de la Corte, Juan del Castillo), of the middle and second half of the century (Jusepe de Ribera, Francisco de Zurbaran, Diego Velazquez de Silva, Alonso Cano, Antonio Pereda, Juan Carreno de Miranda, Sebastian Herrera Barnuevo, Bartolome Esteban Murillo and others). Presented works allow tracing back the development of style - from mannerism to realism and the flowering of baroque.

The works vary in their genre. Besides religious works there are a lot of secular ones - allegories, portraits, landscapes, everyday life genre paintings. More than ten works have left the museum for the first time, five that were included in the exhibition, have new attributions. The paintings were under restoration before the exhibition.

The exhibition is opened until January 17, 2010. A catalogue is published in Italian language.

Head of a Man in Profile Diego Velazquez Larger view		Penitent St Peter Jose de Ribera Larger view
St Fernando Francisco de Zurbaran Larger view		Esquilache Immaculate Conception Bartolome Esteban Murillo Larger view