The State Hermitage an exhibition of the Prado at the Hermitage - one of the most significant events in the Year of Spain in Russia and Russia in Spain. From 25 February to 29 May 2011 in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace are open to visitors sixty-six paintings XV - XIX centuries from the famous Madrid museum - is the largest and most representative exhibition in the Prado, it has ever been organized outside of Spain (an exception is only show in Geneva in 1939, when the civil war masterpieces of the museum had been temporarily taken out of Spain).

• Holy Family with the lamb. 1507
  oil on wood
  From the collection of the Prado Museum
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org
• Albrecht Durer
  Portrait of an unknown. Around 1521
  oil on wood
  From the collection of the Prado Museum
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org

famous French traveler and writer Theophile Gautier called Prado "Most painters museum than a museum of painting." In the Prado powerfully represented the greatest masters such as Titian (about 40 paintings), Rubens (90 works), Velasquez (50 pieces), Goya (140 paintings and nearly 1,000 drawings, etchings, engravings). Next to them - the whole constellation of at least the great names, many of which are also brilliantly displayed in a museum - Bosch, Rafael, Greco, Ribera, Murillo, Mengs, Tiepolo.

Careful selection Hermitage paintings for the exhibition - the work of prominent Western European and Spanish painter Rogier van der Weyden, Hieronymus Bosch, Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Luca Giordano, El Greco, Francisco Zurbaran, Ribera Husepe, Diego Velazquez, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Francisco de Goya - will show the variety and the highest level meeting of the Prado Museum.

Titian Portrait of Emperor Charles V with a dog. 1533 Oil on canvas From the collection of the Prado Museum Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Caravaggio David, winner of Goliath. 1600 Oil on canvas From the collection of the Prado Museum Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Spanish monarchs, like the Russian czars, has always featured a love for art. It is their passion for collecting and the ability to recognize the outstanding talent among the artists of contemporary museum is obliged to its present meeting. For example, Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, and his son Philip II were the main backers of Titian. Philip's passion for painting the Netherlands explains why most of the works of Hieronymus Bosch are in Madrid. Philip IV, the best connoisseur of art from all the Spanish kings, and made a court painter Diego Velazquez, patronized by Peter Paul Rubens and Husepe Ribery. Carlos II, the last of the Habsburgs, and brought to Madrid, Luca Giordano.

Philip V and Queen Isabella Farnese gained remarkable work by Nicolas Poussin, some Dutch and Flemish. Carlos III, invited to work at the court of Anton Raphael Mengs and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son and successor, Carlos IV appointed by Francisco Goya "The first artist of the King. Ferdinand VII, Goya depicted in portraits of the Prince, and later as the monarch, was a collector and patron of art, and that he has decided to establish the Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture, later becoming known as the Prado. The museum was opened on Nov. 19, 1819.

DIEGO RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA -AND-Velasquez Portrait of Queen Mariana of Austria. Around 1652-1653 Oil on canvas From the collection of the Prado Museum Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Luis Melendez Still Life with a box of candy, pretzels and other items. 1770 Oil on canvas From the collection of the Prado Museum Source: hermitagemuseum.org

On Hermitage exhibition presented a series of paintings acquired by Spanish kings or performed under their direct order: "Portrait of an unknown" Dürer, The Holy Family with a Lamb "Raphael," David, winner of Goliath by Caravaggio, Portrait of Charles V with a Dog "by Titian, three portrait by Velazquez, the two still-life of Luis Melendez and a large canvas for tapestry "Vintage" Goya, as well as portraits of almost all the Spanish monarchs, who Prado Museum owes its fame.

The meeting Prado kept excellent sculptures from antiquity to the Renaissance, is relatively small, but includes exhibits the highest level of collection of decorative arts. However, in the first place is seen as the Prado Art Gallery, which has among the approximately eight thousand paintings XII - early XX century, several dozen of those, without which it is impossible to present the history of Western art.

The exhibition is accompanied illustrated catalog, containing a welcome word of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, opening remarks, the Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky and the director of the Prado Museum Miguel Sugasa, articles on the history of the Museum and its collections.

exhibition curator from the State Hermitage Museum - Researcher Department of Western European art Svetoslav Roerich Savvateev.

exhibition will run until May 29, 2011.

Source: hermitagemuseum.org