This coming Sunday, "El Greco to Velazquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III" will open at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The show brings together an international collection of Spanish paintings from the Baroque era, including works by Peter Paul Rubens and several masterpieces by El Greco. Philip III was a very important patron of the arts, and many of Velazquez's greatest works stem from the period when the artist worked as the official painter of Philip's court.
The paintings included in this collection feature many portraits of royalty, but the standouts will be El Greco's acid-colored, hallucinatory paintings of religious ecstasy.
Spanish still-life painting is also featured in the show; several paintings focus on the details of the detritus of everyday life in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The exhibition also presents several sculptures and decorations, including a partial recreation of the camarín of the Duke of Lerma, who was, as the exhibition's press release states, "the most important non-royal collector in Europe at the time and the favorite of Philip III." Running alongside "El Greco to Velazquez" is a contemporary art show featuring the work of famed Spanish realist painter Antonio López Garcia in the Rabb Gallery.
