Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Spring (The Flower Girl)
Oil on canvas, 120.7 x 98.3 cm.
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Murillo and the Art of Friendship – Prado Museum ‘Murillo and Justino de Neve. The Art of Friendship’ brings together a group of seventeen late works by Murillo that were created within the context of the artist’s friendship with Justino de Neve, canon of Seville Cathedral.
June 26 – September 30, 2012
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Source: Prado Museum
The exhibition comprises seventeen paintings, five of which have been specially restored for this event. They range from religious and devotional works to portraits, allegories and the only known miniature attributed to Murillo.
Following the major exhibition on the artist held in London and Madrid in 1982, there have been further ones focusing on specific aspects of his output. None, however, has looked at the creative dynamic generated by the relationship between Murillo and Justino de Neve, which gave rise to an important group of paintings. The fruitful results of their friendship are now the subject of the present exhibition, organised by the Museo del Prado, the Hospital de los Venerables Sacerdotes, Seville, founded in 1670 on the initiative of Justino de Neve and now the headquarters of Fundación Focus-Abengoa, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, which houses an important group of works by the artist.
The paintings in the present exhibition are an outstanding testimony to some of the most significant artistic projects undertaken in Seville during the period in question, introducing the visitor into the heart of its distinctive manifestation of the Baroque style and its fusion of art, spirituality and culture.
Highlights of the exhibition include “Spring (Girl with Flowers)” and “Summer (Young Man with a Basket of Fruit)” loaned from the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the National Gallery of Scotland, respectively.
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The late Raphael at the Prado Museum (exhibition, 2012)
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