Present day
03-04-14

Lectures, documentary showing and an exhibition on El Greco
400th anniversary of the artist’s death
The Museum is taking part in the events to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of El Greco with the special activity days El Greco: matter and soul. They include four lectures and the showing of the documentary El Greco. Painter of the Invisible, recently premiered at the Museo del Prado. In addition, there is a special exhibition entitled El Greco in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao (30 April 25 August), which will reveal hidden details in the two works by the artist in our own collection: Saint Francis praying before the crucified Christ (ca.1585) and The Annunciation (ca.1596-1600).
This anniversary offers an ideal opportunity for museums possessing important works by El Greco to present new research on them. In addition, the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao (founded in 1908) opened to the public in 1914 in the School of Arts and Crafts in Atxuri with an exhibition on the artist. The opportunity was thus too good to be missed.
The special activity days will offer a comprehensive survey of the work of El Greco through four lectures, to be given by Leticia Ruiz, Head of Spanish Renaissance Painting at the Museo Nacional del Prado; Ana Sánchez-Lassa, curator of the collection at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao until 1912; Miriam Alzuri of the Museum’s Exhibitions Department; and José Luis Merino, head of our Department of Conservation and Restoration. The documentary, which has a scholarly commentary by Xavier Bray, Chief Curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery (London), will look at the artistic climate in the different places where El Greco lived and worked.