Renaissance to Goya: Prints and drawings from Spain

Drawn from the British Museum collection (London, United Kingdom), Renaissance to Goya brings together for the first time important prints and drawings by Spanish and other European artists who were working in Spain from the mid-sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

Outside of Spain, the British Museum has one of the best collections of Spanish drawings from the seventeenth century, a period often considered to be the 'Golden Age' of Spanish arts and literature. All of the most important artists are represented by key works in this display; Diego Velázquez and Alonso Cano in Madrid, Bartolomé Murillo and Francisco Zurbáran in Seville and Jusepe de Ribera in Spanish Naples. Francisco de Goya, who is universally regarded as one of the most important and compelling graphic artists of the period, is represented through the Museum's remarkable collection of his prints and drawings.

The lack of study and appreciation of Spanish prints and drawings is partly due to the misapprehension that Spanish artists did not draw, an attitude that has since been revised through further research on the subject. The exhibition will consider the reasons behind this misapprehension and demonstrate the distinctive character of art in Spain during this period.

Dates: from September 20 to January 6.
Location: British Museum. Great Russell Street. London, WC1B 3DG. United Kingdom.
Opening hours: from Monday to Sunday from 10am to 5.30pm.