Spanish Masterpieces from The Frick Collection, Prado Museum, Madrid: Unitl 2 July 2023

Room 16A of the Museo Nacional del Prado is currently exhibiting a collection of Spanish paintings from The Frick Collection, one of New York's esteemed art museums, until July 2nd. The Comunidad de Madrid provided support for this exceptional journey of nine celebrated works by Velázquez, El Greco, Murillo, and Goya.

The exhibition focuses on the outstanding works of Spanish painting housed in The Frick Collection, which have close ties to major works in the Prado, making it a unique and exceptional exhibition. For instance, El Greco's Saint Jerome is exhibited alongside his Portrait of a Doctor, which complements it as a secular portrait painted in a chromatic range of greys. Similarly, his Purification of the Temple is displayed next to The Annunciation, both demonstrating a similar use of architectural elements to create perspectival recession.

The Frick's Philip IV in Fraga, painted by Velázquez at the same date, location, and on the same canvas as El Primo, is also on display. Contemporary to Velázquez, Murillo's Self-portrait is set in an oval stone frame, a type very characteristic of the artist and also seen in the portrait of Nicolás de Omazur in the Prado, exhibited alongside it.

Moreover, Portrait of a Woman of 1824 by Goya and his Juan Bautista Muguiro of 1827 are paired to reveal the exceptional quality of the painter's late portraits and the originality of the pictorial approach that makes them so unique.