EL GRECO TO VELÁZQUEZ: ART DURING THE REIGN OF PHILIP III MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON APRIL 20 JULY 27, 2008 GUND GALLERY

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1 EL GRECO TO VELÁZQUEZ: ART DURING THE REIGN OF PHILIP III MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON APRIL 20 JULY 27, 2008 GUND GALLERY THE NASHER MUSEUM OF ART AT DUKE UNIVERSITY AUGUST 21 NOVEMBER 9, 2008 PAVILIONS I AND II EXHIBITION NARRATIVE Major figures in Golden Age Spain, El Greco ( ) and Velázquez ( ) are two of the best-known artists in the western world. During the past decade, both have been the subject of monographic exhibitions with record attendance in Washington, D.C., Dallas, New York and Los Angeles. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (NMA) are organizing an international loan exhibition, El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, which will be the first to place these two great masters within the artistic and historical context of their time. The exhibition will reunite their works for the first time in 400 years with those of their contemporaries and view them through the lens of the fascinating world of the court of the Spanish monarch Philip III (reigned ), just now being understood thanks to recent groundbreaking scholarship. The reign of Philip III was an immensely fertile period in the development of art in Spain, which in turn affected the course of European art history more broadly. In this one short span of history, for example, El Greco painted such works as Fray Félix Hortensio (MFA), a penetrating portrait of the intelligent, sophisticated churchman who composed sermons for the royal court. El Greco also delivered to a chapel in Madrid some of his most daring compositions, including the dazzling Annunciation (The Prado Museum), painted in a new style and with a feverish devotional pitch unique in the history of art. At the same moment, the young and aspiring Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens visited the Spanish court bearing diplomatic gifts from the Duke of Mantua, and was commissioned by the Duke of Lerma, a leading figure at court, to paint the monumental Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma (The Prado Museum). The reign of Philip III also marked the birth of still life painting in Toledo, and talented painters of that city, among them Luis Tristán and Juan Bautista Maino, returned from Italy to execute works of the highest artistic merit. The first Spanish genre paintings also date to this period, such as Velázquez s The Waterseller of Seville (Apsley House), which is still considered one of the greatest naturalistic paintings in the world. These masterpieces, to be featured in El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, will help to re-create for the viewer a vanished age that is a seriously neglected chapter in the history of Spanish art of the Golden Age. History has not been kind to the shadow king (as Philip III has been called) and his court; this exhibition attempts to redress a whole period of Spain s history through a presentation of its most impressive artifacts, placing them within the socio-economic-political context of the court of Philip III. Visitors familiar with the art of Spain will see that many of the canonical images of the Spanish Golden Age actually originated in this period. Discoveries of previously unknown paintings and compositional and iconographical innovations will be revealed. This exhibition will afford both the general public and more specialized audiences a new understanding of this important moment in the Spanish Golden Age.

2 El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III will be presented to the public at the MFA from April 20- July 27, 2008, and then at NMA from August 21 - November 9, It will include approximately 70 paintings and sculptures made between 1598 and 1621 and representing 20 artists, along with decorative arts objects. The exhibition will bring together works from major museums in Austria, Spain, France, England, and Scotland, as well as impressive artifacts of the period from 12 US museums. Important private collections and numerous churches, monasteries and convents in Spain have also promised to lend to the exhibition. The majority of these artworks have not traveled; thus this exhibition offers a rare opportunity for American audiences. This remarkable group of masterworks will be organized thematically to communicate the central ideas: El Greco s significant presence and acceptance at this court (Late El Greco section); the changing image of the monarch and role of the Duke of Lerma (portraiture section); the new style of grandeur (reconstruction of Lerma s camarin, a small room that contained luxury goods such as imported glass and ceramics); the increasing role of religion in government programs and concerns (religion and the court section); and the rise of Spanish naturalism (still life and genre section). Highlights of the exhibition and its presentation will include: Four loans of tremendous importance from The Prado Museum in Madrid, masterpieces that have rarely been lent, all making their first appearance in the US. Rubens Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma is being cleaned and conserved especially for this show. Equally important and impressive loans from major museums in the US and Europe of paintings by El Greco and early Velázquez, also pictures that are continually in demand, but rarely lent. At least five large and significant works of religious sculpture, some originally commissioned by the king, queen or the Duke of Lerma, that are still a vital part of worship in Spain, carried through the streets during Holy Week processions in Valladolid as they have been since their creation during the reign of Philip III. A special reconstruction of the Duke of Lerma s Madrid palace camarín to emphasize in visual terms his role as the major artistic patron. The introduction to the American public of lesser-known but highly talented artists who painted for the court, including: Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and Bartolomé González (royal portraitists before Velázquez ); the brilliant still life painter Juan Sánchez Cotán; El Greco s talented pupil Luis Tristán; and young prince Philip s (IV) drawing teacher who had studied in Italy, the superb Juan Bautista Maino. Through wall texts and labels, and in the catalogue, the presentation of new research, including the discovery of the inventories of the private picture collection of the Duke of Lerma recording over 2,500 paintings, revealing him to be one of the most important collectors in Europe at the time. The project includes a catalogue, comprehensive interpretive materials and a variety of public programs designed to reach a broad audience and accommodate a wide range of experiences and learning styles. These will include lectures, docent-led tours, a random-access audio tour for adults and families, collaborations with other cultural organizations, teacher workshops, and dramatic readings from the classics of this period by Cervantes, López de Vega, Juan de la Cruz and others. The production of two specially produced films: one on the abovementioned Semana Santa processions during Holy Week of spring 2007, and the other providing a virtual tour of the

3 town of Lerma, accompanied by the soundtrack of the First Vespers and Salve Service as it might have been celebrated in October 1617, recorded and performed in 2001 for the first time in 400 years by the Gabrieli consort and players in the La Colegiata de San Pedro in Lerma. In sum, El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III will break new ground by presenting the two giants of Spanish art from the standpoint of the religious, political, literary and artistic activities at the center of power of the Spanish Empire, a sophisticated and powerful court whose holdings in the New World, Italy, Flanders, Portugal and elsewhere were greater than those of the Roman Empire. The works in the exhibition will illustrate that Philip III revolutionized the Spanish court by appointing one man, the Duke of Lerma, to be his alter-ego, thus creating the first prime minister in European history and fundamentally altering the role of the absolute monarch. In purposeful reaction to the practices of his father Philip II, who engaged in endless wars against the Protestants and Turks, and who employed Italian artists to decorate his royal palace and religious complex, El Escorial, Philip III and the Duke of Lerma replaced battles and a taste for foreign artists with endless public festivities, celebrations, processions, hunting expeditions, and constant travel, creating a type of cultural nationalism that offered numerous opportunities for local painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, and writers, many of whom were earlier shunned by Philip II. Audiences will come away from the exhibition with the understanding that El Greco and Velázquez, two of the most important painters in the history of art, were fundamentally affected by the cultural, religious, literary and political context of the court of Philip III, who ruled over one of the largest and wealthiest empires in the world at the time. Visitors will also be introduced to other Spanish artists largely unknown in this country, and will learn about the king and Lerma as progressive patrons who contributed fundamentally to the development of the artists work.

4 CATALOGUE The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated 200-page catalogue published by MFA Publications, featuring essays by curators from both the MFA and the NMA, as well as outside scholars from Spain, Ireland and the United States. The catalogue will feature approximately 100 color reproductions and 60 black-and-white illustrations. MFA will share design and editing costs with the NMA, and is responsible for the production of the book. Costs for design, editing and production are estimated at $180,000. The National Endowment for the Arts has supported the project with a $50,000 grant to fund project research assistants in Spain and at both organizing museums, and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation has supported NMA research and travel with grants totaling $40,000. Contributing authors include: Rosemarie Mulcahy, author of The Decoration of the Royal Basilica of the Escorial; Antonio Feros Carrasco, author of Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III; and Laura Bass, author of the forthcoming The Drama of the Portrait: Theater and Visual Culture in Early Modern Spain. The exhibition curators, Sarah Schroth, the NMA s Nancy Hanks Senior Curator, and Ronni Baer, the MFA s Mrs. Russell W. Baker Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, will also contribute. This publication will constitute the first comprehensive study of art during the reign of Philip III. Its introduction and four essays will create a much needed resource for the study of the history, art, religion, and literature of the period, for general readers as well as specialists. Several of the essays will incorporate original archival research conducted especially for the exhibition, and published here for the first time. The book will challenge the commonly held view of Spain at this time, perceived as a cultural backwater, decadent and misguided, led by a corrupt self-serving favorite, the Duke of Lerma, who abused the tremendous power granted him by a weak and indolent king. Spanish historian Antonio Feros Carrasco will argue for a radical revision of the period, focusing on the positive accomplishments and novel political ideas introduced by Philip III and Lerma. He will trace the campaign of denigration against the personalities of the reign from its original sources in 1611 to the present day. Co-curator Sarah Schroth will attack the view that the king and courtiers were more interested in hunting than art by presenting the results of more than twenty years of research and thought about the art and patronage of this period, including a never-before-published summary of the 13 inventories of the Duke of Lerma that she discovered in a private archive in Toledo. She will recount the circumstances and consequences of that incredible find, which provide proof that Lerma s collection was one of the largest in Europe at the time, and that there was a much higher and more significant level of artistic activity at the court of Philip III than previously thought. The function of art and religion at the court of Philip III has never been investigated. Rosemarie Mulcahy, who has written about religious art at the court of Philip II to great international acclaim, will use her expertise to uncover reasons for the intense devotion of the court and how it is reflected in art of the period. Laura Bass will demonstrate in her essay that the Spain of Philip III was a time of unparalleled literary achievement. She will provide an overview of these advances in the genres of fictional narrative, poetry and theatre and will also explore the social, political, cultural and economic conditions that may account for the period s enormous literary florescence. Her essay will survey

5 the masterworks of Spanish Golden Age literature, including Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote, Luis de Góngora s poetry, and Lópe de Vega s contributions to the theatre. Co-curator Ronni Baer will write an introduction to the catalogue that will outline the making of this groundbreaking exhibition, taking the reader through the steps of creating it: travel to examine pictures; loan negotiations; installation planning; program development; and the parts played by the numerous museum staff and others involved. To our knowledge, this will be the first time an essay will be devoted to the curatorial work necessary to create a major international loan exhibition and scholarly publication. An advisory committee of leading scholars and curators in the field was formed at the initial stages of exhibition planning; all have consulted extensively on the exhibition and catalogue content. The committee includes: Plácido Arango, former member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one of the foremost collectors in Spain; Jonathan Brown, The Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor at the Institute for Fine Arts, New York University and a leading scholar of seventeenth century Spanish art; Fernando Checa, former director of The Prado Museum, Spain; and Jesus Urrea, director of Museo Nacional de Escultura and an expert on seventeenth century art in Valladroid.