Spirit & Splendor: El Greco, Velázquez, and the Hispanic Baroque

By Apollo, 22 August 2025


The Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York holds one of the most significant collections of Spanish art outside Spain, comprising some 18,000 artworks that range from the Palaeolithic era to the 20th century. Among these works is a rich body of paintings by Spanish artists including El Greco, Velázquez, Murillo and Zurbarán, as well as works by the Mexican painter Luis Juárez (c. 1585–c. 1638), whose mastery of light and drapery was informed by Flemish Old Masters, and the Bolivian painter Melchor Pérez Holguín (c. 1665–c.1730), posthumously nicknamed ‘the Golden Brush’. This exhibition in Austin brings together 57 works from the Hispanic Society’s collection, focusing on baroque paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries – an era of Spanish colonial expansion during which the Catholic Church and the Spanish court commissioned leading painters to bolster their image (24 August–1 February 2026).

Find out more from the Blanton Museum’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

Pietà (c. 1574–76), El Greco. Hispanic Society of America, New York
Camillo Astalli, known as Cardinal Pamphili (1650–51), Diego Velázquez. Hispanic Society of America, New York
Saint Michael Striking Down the Rebellious Angels (1650–52), Sebastián López de Arteaga. Hispanic Society of America, New York