Sacred Made Real

‘The Sacred Made Real’ presents a landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age with works created to shock the senses and stir the soul.

Where?

The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5DN

21 October 2009 – 24 January 2010

How much?

Standard Tickets: Timed-ticket entry

Full price     £8
Senior/concession     £7
Senior/concession Tuesday
afternoon offer (from 2.30pm)     £4
Art Fund members     £4
Students/Job seekers/12-18s     £4
Under 12s     FREE

The Sacred Made Real – Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600 – 1700

‘The Sacred Made Real’ presents a landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age with works created to shock the senses and stir the soul.

Paintings, including masterpieces by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán, are displayed for the very first time alongside Spain’s remarkable polychrome wooden sculptures.

1648 Diego

Inspiring devotion

The religious artists of 17th-century Spain pursued a quest for realism with uncompromising zeal and genius, creating works to inspire devotion among believers.

By displaying works side by side, this exhibition explores the intense dialogue between the arts of sculpture and painting, revealing that they were intricately linked and Interdependent.

Hyperrealism

Sculptors often went to extraordinary lengths to achieve greater realism, introducing glass eyes and tears, as well as ivory teeth and human hair to their sculptures. The separate skill of polychroming, performed by specially trained painters, added to the effect with remarkable flesh tones.

‘The Sacred Made Real’ offers the opportunity to see an art form rarely seen outside Spain, featuring masters of polychrome sculpture, including Pedro de Mena, Juan Martínez Montañés and Gregorio Fernández. At the same time, it demonstrates that the painters of the Spanish Golden Age were able to achieve the same disconcerting realism on canvas.

Website: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/the-sacred-made-real/*/changeNav/001002006/tab/0

Author: Ty_Lee

Ty is a lover of all things art - from the classical to the neo classical, his appetite for art is insatiable. Devouring all forms and patterns, he is constantly on the look out for art that elicits emotion reactions within his own continuum and those of others. Always friendly and happy to have a chin wag about the latest art his Buddhist views permeate the kaleidoscope of his vision.