黑料不打烊

Splendours follows a timeline from the late Renaissance to the beginnings of the avant-garde; from the 17th to the 20th century. It starts in the early 17th century with two works representative of the output of Pantoja de la Cruz and Jan Brueghel the Younger, who then give way to the magnificent repertoire of the Baroque period, with works by painters of the stature of Vald茅s Leal, Luca Giordano and Antonio del Castillo.

From the 18th century come works by Acisclo A. Palomino and Jos茅 Ignacio del Cobo y Guzm谩n, who continued in the Baroque  tradition, albeit with a broader, and more colourful palette. Also featured is Miguel J. Mel茅ndez de Ribera, whose work had begun to reflect the changes in taste prompted by the recently arrived Bourbon dynasty.

Bearing witness to the range of artistic idioms that coexisted in the 19th century are works typical of several movements of the time: Neoclassicism, in Juan Antonio de Rivera's Portrait of the Sculptor 脕lvarez Cubero and Romanticism, in the shape of the Duke of Rivas's Self-Portrait. Other works from this time may be usefully filed under Realism, Symbolism and Modernism.

The section covering the period spanning the late 19th century and the early 20th century features some fine works by Tom谩s Mu帽oz Lucena, Joaqu铆n Sorolla, 脕ngel D铆az Huertas, Jos茅 Garnelo, Adolfo Lozano Sidro and Mateo Inurria, although pride of place must go to the works of a family that proved decisive to the course of art's development in C贸rdoba: Rafael Romero Barros and his sons, and their acclaimed relatives the painters Rafael and, in particular, Julio Romero de Torres.

In view of the sheer variety of artistic idioms and initiatives spawned in the 20th century, figurative and abstract artists have been grouped separately for the purposes of this exhibition, despite many of them sharing, to some extent, similar underlying approaches.

Finally, one room houses selected graphic works from the Rafael Bot铆 Provincial Visual Arts Foundation's superb collection. Besides Robert Matta, the roster of 11 artists shown here includes leading figures in modern and contemporary Spanish art, notably Picasso, Joan Mir贸, Alberto S谩nchez, Pablo Palazuelo, Juan Barjola, Antoni T脿pies, Eduardo Chillida, Antonio Saura, Luis Gordillo and Eduardo Arroyo.