Splendor, Myth and Vision:
Nudes from the Prado
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
Splendor, Myth, and Vision: Nudes from the Prado, featuring twenty-eight Old Master paintings from the Museo Nacional del Prado that celebrate the role of the nude in Western painting. Twenty-four of the paintings hadnever before been shown in America.
The works presented in Splendor, Myth, and Vision are among the finest of the Prado’s unparalleled holdings, selected not only for their relationship to the exhibition’s themes, but also for their beauty and historical significance. Included in this sensuous exhibition are major paintings by Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacopo Tintoretto, Diego Velázquez, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Guercino, Nicolas Poussin, Luca Giordano, Guido Reni, Jusepe de Ribera, and others
“While the title of the exhibition – Splendor, Myth, and Vision – suggests sensual abandon – each of those nouns a big pillow for Venus to lean against – the pleasure of this show, while significant, is more cerebral. As much as the nude served as a site of pleasure, it was also a place of artistic striving and viewer’s anxiety. The subtle organization of the show and its unobtrusive, thoughtful wall text artfully guide you through a well constructed intellectual space opened up by the exhibition – a ‘sala reservada’ of its own.”
All Photography
(Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute)