Following on from the Valladolid shows devoted to the great Spanish masters of polychrome art, this week of posts ends in Madrid with the Prado’s current exhibition that explores the whole relationship between sculptures and painters. The show is titled ‘Hand in Hand. Sculpture and colour in the Spanish Golden Age’ – a reference to the theorist Antonio Palomino (1655–1726) who in praising the sculpture of Christ of Forgiveness, carved by Manuel Pereira and polychromed by Francisco Camilo, ended with the following phrase: “And so painting and sculpture, taking each other by the hand, are a wondrous sight”.
The exhibition explores the synthesis of volume and colour, a phenomenon that reached new heights in the context of the Iberian early modern world. Charting the unbroken continuity with classical tradition, the curators make a convincing case for the special role of painted sculpture as a tool of persuasion.
The Arts of Golden Age Spain and the Hispanic World 