A masterful stroke for QAGOMA

Outside Queensland Art Gallery

Spain has recently come to Brisbane and set up residence at the Queensland Art Gallery, Southbank. External to the exhibition space itself, the walls have been painted a sumptuous red and black. Lightshades fringed with pompoms hang from the ceiling. It is a dramatic visual invitation to enter the exhibition space and it is this sense of drama, grandeur and deliberate effect that pervades this exhibition, formally entitled ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado’.

The exhibition from Madrid`s Museo de Nacional del Prado curated by Javier Portús Pérez, the Head of the Department of Spanish Painting to 1700, consists of a collection of works by recognized masters such as Francisco de Goya and Diego Velasquez as well as works by lesser-known artists. It is a deliberate showcasing of more than one hundred carefully-selected works spanning the years from 1550 to 1900. Visitors are led through a series of distinct but inter-connected rooms which provide viewers both artistic and didactic experience as each room`s works are dedicated to a particular theme and the rooms themselves are arranged in chronological order. As such, works from the Renaissance and the Neoclassic, Romantic and Impressionist periods are on display.

Diego Velazquez: 'Philip IV as hunter', 1633

The first room is replete with dominating oil on canvas portraits commissioned largely by members of the royal family during the sixteenth century. In many cases they are life-size paintings, all in ornate gilt frames and done with dark colours, reminiscent of a time when Spain was in the ascendancy. There is an overwhelming sense of the pomp and grandeur of imperial Spain which seems to have been the intention of painters and subjects both. In addition to commanding portraits of royals and members of the Court, are portraits such as ‘Francisco Lezcano, the boy from Vallecas’ by Velasquez (1636 -38, depicting a young man with dwarfism holding a deck of cards. Also displayed is Juan Carreno de Miranda’s painting ‘Eugenia, Martizen Vallejo’, (1680), of a six-year old, overweight girl. Both paintings allude to an era that was suspicious of bodily abnormalities that challenged divine creation and both seem to assert that those not in the lower classes were subject to the whim of their social betters. It was with an uncomfortable feeling that one gazed into the faces of the mocked and marginalized.

There are other dark rooms completely given over to often graphic paintings of the suffering Christ and crucifixion scenes, as well as images of saints and martyrs. Juan de Valdes Leal’s ‘Christ on the way to Calvary’, a gruesome depiction of Christ struggling to carry the cross, blood running down his face, is suggestive of a nation of faith and strength. The Roman Catholic Church and the State were the supreme authorities in Reformation Spain, so religion and religious devotion had great influence on Spain’s culture and art.

Francisco de Goya: 'The Pottery Vendor', 1778

Paintings from what is termed ‘Golden Age Spain’ in the seventeenth century are displayed, appropriately, in a deep gold-coloured room. The paintings depict tables laden with exotic, expensive food accompanied by golden tableware. Displayed are the tastes of Spain’s wealthy merchant class, made rich by Spain`s conquest of the New World. The middle classes of Spain and their daily lives are a theme in the exhibition as it moves into the Romantic and Impressionist eras. Fuelling an aristocratic curiosity for the activities of the lower classes, there are many images of the hustle and bustle of public spaces such as city squares and crossroads where Spanish civilians went about their daily business, one such being Francisco Goya’s ‘The Pottery Vendor’, depicting a carriage in full swing while a picnic is held alongside.

One cannot miss the dimly-lit room entitled ‘Reason and Madness’ dedicated to a series of Goya’s etching and engraving prints entitled “Los Caprichos”. The strangely beautiful prints completed by Goya on his deathbed are supposedly of myths and stories associated with devout Catholicism. Goya`s experience of deafness and vulnerable, flawed humanity in general seem to be the themes in these prints depicting ghouls, animals, people and everything in between.

Viewers entering the last room will sense an audible buzz in here as opposed to the quiet, almost reverential mood in other rooms. It is filled to the brim with rural landscapes and images of urban life, one being Queensland Art Gallery`s own ‘La Belle Hollandaise’ by Pablo Picasso (1905) with which, fittingly, the exhibition ends.

Federico de Madrazo:
'María Dolores de Aldama, Marchioness of Montelo', 1855

The Prado collection is on display here, in Brisbane, for the first time in Australia so it is a coup for QAGOMA to showcase a collection of this stature. Following directly on from Matisse’s Drawing Life exhibition in 2011, it seems the gallery is clearly set on building an international reputation for itself. From the moment of stepping in to the entrance lobby with its wall-sized image of the Prado`s façade, viewers realise they are entering another world which has been so presented by the curators that their pride in their heritage, culture, history and artistic tradition is palpable. As much as it is an art exhibition, ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado’ is a history lesson that is sure to entertain and challenge. The exhibition finishes on the 4^th November. 

Check out the QAGOMA site and get all the details about the exhibition here:

http://qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/portrait_of_spain_masterpieces_from_the_prado


Images: 

• Queensland Art Gallery 
• Diego Velazquez: 'Philip IV as hunter', 1633
• Francisco de Goya: 'The Pottery Vendor', 1778
• Federico de Madrazo: 'María Dolores de Aldama, Marchioness of Montelo', 1855

Masterpieces from the Prado at the Queensland Art Gallery, n.d., image, viewed 8 October 2012, <http://bagnidilucca.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/masterpieces-from-the-prado-at-the-queensland-art-gallery/> 

ZIGGY THE WESTIE VISITS 'PORTRAITS OF SPAIN: MASTERPIECES FROM THE PRADO', n.d., image, viewed 8 October 2012, <http://blog.qag.qld.gov.au/ziggy-the-westie-visits-portrait-of-spain-masterpieces-from-the-prado/> 

Francisco de Goya Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado (group show), n.d., image, viewed 8 October 2012, <http://www.artwhatson.com.au/qag/portrait-of-spain-masterpieces-from-the-prado/the-pottery-vendor-el-cacharrero>

Tickets and Packages/ Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado, n.d., image, viewed 9 October 2012, <http://qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/portrait_of_spain_masterpieces_from_the_prado/tickets>