The Hispanic Society Museum & Library is home to the most extensive collection of early modern Hispanic art and literature outside of Spain. Featuring selected highlights from this esteemed collection, Spirit & Splendor traces a 150-year history of Spanish painting that culminates with the Baroque, a style characterized by dramatic realism, opulence, and religious devotion.
Showcasing almost 60 works, the exhibition includes masterpieces by renowned artists like El Greco and Diego Velázquez, as well as works by José de Páez and Melchor Pérez Holguín, painters who reinterpreted the Baroque aesthetic in the Spanish Viceroyalties of New Spain (present-day Mexico) and Peru.
The Blanton’s presentation marks the final stop for these artworks, following exhibitions at the Boca Raton Museum of Art and the Milwaukee Art Museum.
One of the must-see exhibitions around the world in 2025.
The art newspaper
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Diego Velázquez, Camillo Astalli, Known as Cardinal Pamphili, circa 1650–1651, oil on canvas (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, after Diego Velázquez, Copy of the Portrait of Juan de Pareja, circa 1656–1657, oil on canvas (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
El Greco, Pietà, 1574–1576, oil on canvas (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
El Greco, Saint Luke, 1590s, oil on canvas (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Miguel de Pret, Still Life with Melon and Fowl, circa 1630, oil on canvas (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Anthonis Mor van Dashorst, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Third Duke of Alba, 1549, oil on canvas (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Nicolás de Correa, The Wedding at Cana, 1696, oil and mixed media on wood panel, inlaid with mother-of-pearl (nácar) (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Melchor Pérez Holguín, Saint Peter of Alcántara and Saint Teresa, circa 1724, oil on canvas (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Sebastián López de Arteaga, Saint Michael Striking Down the Rebellious Angels, circa 1650–1652, oil on copper (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Fray Alonso López de Herrera, Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, 1640, oil on copper (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Diego Velázquez, Portrait of a Little Girl, 1638–42, oil on canvas, 20 1/4 x 16 in. (photo: courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York)
Credit
Spirit & Splendor: El Greco, Velázquez, and the Hispanic Baroque is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art and the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, New York.
Major support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided by The Moody Foundation.
This presentation is organized by Holly Borham, Curator of Prints, Drawings and European Art and Rosario I. Granados, Marilynn Thoma Curator, Art of the Spanish Americas, Blanton Museum of Art