SAN ANTONIO, TX.- El Greco. Velazquez. Goya. Sorolla. Picasso. These are just some of the Spanish masters whose paintings are included in Spain: 500 Years of Spanish Painting from the Museums of Madrid. This summer, the San Antonio Museum of Art will present a dramatic survey of five hundred years of Spanish painting, stretching from the union of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in the late fifteenth century to the turn of the twentieth century. Spain will contain more than forty works of art, the majority from major museums in Madrid, and very few of which have previously been on view in the United States.

Organized in celebration of the Tricentennial of the city of San Antonio, the exhibition will convey the splendor of Spanish artistic traditions. This rich heritage is an aspect of what makes San Antonio one of the most distinctive places in the United States.

Spain traces the continuity of specific Spanish pictorial traditions, including portraiture, landscape from the earliest hints of naturalism to the impressionist and expressionist movements of the late nineteenth century, devotional painting, and still life.

Organized by Dr. Katherine Crawford Luber, the Kelso Director, and Dr. William Keyse Rudolph, Chief Curator and The Marie and Hugh Halff Curator of American Art, Spain will only be on view in San Antonio. Spain features works by iconic artists El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Jusepe de Ribera, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, and Pablo Picasso. It also celebrates the artistic achievements of many other Spanish masters, such as Juan de Flandes, Luis de Morales, Luis de Madrazo y Kuntz, Antonio María Esquivel, and Ignacio Zuloaga. “Spanish artistic traditions are part of the formative influences upon the culture of San Antonio," says Dr. Luber. "With this exhibition, our residents and visitors will have the chance to engage with extraordinary works of art.”

The exhibition checklist includes masterpieces from some of the most important museums in Madrid:

• Museo Nacional del Prado
• Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
• Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
• Museo Lázaro Galdiano
• Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
• MuseoCerralbo
• Museo del Romanticismo
• Museo Sorolla

Key loans from the Cleveland Museum of Art; the McNay Art Museum; the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts add to the distinguished international mix, as well as tell the further story of the active collecting of Spanish painting by American museums.

To offer an immersive experience to its visitors, the Museum has conceived the Summer of Spain. Throughout the run of the exhibition, there will be lecture series, film festivals, and a weekly evening, Festivál de Arte, featuring flamenco lessons, poetry readings, music, and art-making. The exhibition has inspired other city organizations to participate in the Summer of Spain, including the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, the Southwest School of Art, Casa de España, the Pearl retail and dining complex, and Visit San Antonio.