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Spain and the Hispanic World, RA Exhibition
January 21, 2023 - April 10, 2023
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Spain and the Hispanic World will be on display at the Royal Academy of Arts in January 2023.
A visual history of Spain, this historic exhibition brings together notable works from ancient times to the early 20th century from colonial Latin America and Spain. The immense range of cultural and religious influences that have formed Spanish culture over four millennia will be reflected in Spain and the Hispanic World. Paintings, sculptures, pottery, sketches, and manuscripts are among the more than 150 pieces that will be shown chronologically.
The largest collection of Spanish and Hispanic art outside of Spain may be found at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, which Archer M. Huntington founded in New York in 1904.
The collection drawn from the collection at the the Hispanic Society Museum & Library New York, will be shown in the UK for the first time at this time.
The Duchess of Alba by Francisco de Goya, and Gaspar de Guzmán, Count–Duke of Olivares by Diego Velázquez are just a couple of the outstanding works on display.
The show will also feature works by modern and post-Impressionist painters such Joaqun Sorolla (1863-1923), Ignacio Zuloaga (1870-1945), and José Gutiérrez Solana, as well as paintings by Luis de Morales (1510/11-1586), El Greco (1541-1614), and Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) (1886-1945). The huge site-specific mural that Sorolla created between 1912 and 1919 for the Hispanic Society will be shown in the exhibition’s concluding piece.
There will be polychrome reliquary busts by Pedro de Mena (1628-1688), who is regarded as one of the most significant sculptors of the 17th century in Spain, as well as his daughter Andrea de Mena’s Ecce homo and Mater dolorosa (1675). (1654-1734).
Highlights will include a stunningly illuminated Hebrew Bible made between 1450 and 1497 and an extremely rare Black Book of Hours made in 1458, perhaps at the request of Mara of Castile (1401–1458), a collection of which the Hispanic Society is particularly proud, will weave an engaging parallel story to cultural changes occurring throughout mainland Spain.
Highlights will include the well-known World Map, 1526, by Giovanni Vespucci (1486–after 1527), one of the most impressive nautical charts, as well as the Map of Tequaltiche, 1584, from the Relaciones Geográficas made at Philip II’s request. Paintings like the Young Man from the Coast (El Costeo), by José Agustn Arrieta, from around 1843, are among the other Latin American pieces on display (1803-1874).
Spain and the Hispanic World will be on show at the main Galleries of the RA from 21 January — 10 April 2023. (10am–6pm, Tuesdays to Sundays ,10am-9pm, Fridays).
Main image: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, The Duchess of Alba (detail), 1797, Oil on canvas, 210.3 x 149.3 cm, On loan from The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY.
