Art & Empire: The Golden Age of Spain

•Published to accompany an exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art from 18 May, 2019 to September 2, 2019


Spain's Golden Age may be defined as the extraordinary moment when the visual arts, architecture, literature, and music all reached unprecedented heights.


Featuring a diverse selection of more than 100 outstanding works produced by leading artists from Spain and its global territories, Art & Empire: The Golden Age of Spain is the first exhibition in the United States (at the San Diego Museum of Art) to expand the notion of 'Golden Age' to include the Hispanic world beyond the shores of the Iberian Peninsula. Such far-flung Spanish-controlled centers as Antwerp, Naples, Mexico, Lima, and the Philippines are represented by paintings, sculpture and decorative arts of astounding quality and variety from the pivotal years of about 1660 to 1750.


Artists featured in the exhibition include Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Francisco de Zurbarán, Jusepe de Ribera, El Greco, Juan de Valdés Leal, Juan Sánchez Cotán, and many more. This exhibition also marks the first time in the Museum's history that all five of the Spanish masters represented on the Museum's building façade Velázquez, Murillo, Zurbarán, Ribera and El Greco will be shown together at the Museum.


Art & Empire: The Golden Age of Spain features more than 100 works organized into five sections including The Courtly Image: Portraiture in the Hispanic World; The Birth of Naturalism; Art in the Service of Faith; Splendors of Daily Life; and Global Materials and Trade, and represent more than 10 countries, including Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines.