Museo del Prado, Madrid
ALSO AVAILABLE IN HARDBACK
Paintings for the Planet King: Philip IV and the Buen Retiro Palace
304 pages, paperback, 300 x 240 mm, 200 colour illustrations
PRICE: £30.00
ISBN: 978 1 903470 42 8
Philip IV of Spain (ruled 1621–1665) was known as the 'Planet King', shining brightly in the universe of the arts even if the Golden Age of Spanish painitng coincided with imperial decline. The Buen Retiro Palace surpassed any palace ever built in Europe for the collection of paintings it contained, most of them commissioned in the 1630s from the finet painters in Europe at the time – Velázquez and Zurbarán, Rubens, Claude, Poussin, Jan Both, Herman van Swaneveld, Domenichino, Lanfranco and others.
This magnificent catalogue contains a mouthwatering display of paintings by these masters, and examines in particular the Battle Paintings and the Hercules series of the throne room (Hall of Realms), the Landscape Gallery, and the hitherto virtually unknown History of Rome cycle. Many of these works, already famous, are now seen in their original context, while others have remained uidentified in the Prado's storerooms until now.
Accompanied the landmark exhibition at the Prado, Madrid July-November 2005.
Annibale Carracci was the great genius of early Baroque painting in Italy, blighted by melancholia at the end of his life but full of promise and invention in his prime. This book concentrates on one of his most ambitious early works, the Venus, Adonis and Cupid in the Prado Museum, Madrid. The paintings has recently been cleaned and restored and this book establishes it as one of the great works of Annibale's career - and as a simply wonderful painting. More
Originally painted for the Town Hall in Antwerp in 1609, Rubens's Adoration of the Magi subsequently passed to the King of Spain, and was rediscovered in Madrid by the artist in 1628. He repainted and extended it, in a dialogue with his younger self which this book studies. More
Philip IV of Spain (ruled 1621-1665) was known as the 'Planet King', shining brightly in the universe of the arts even if the Golden Age of Spanish painting coincided with imperial decline. The Buen Retiro Palace surpassed any palace ever built in Europe for the collection of paintings it contained - Velázquez, Zurbarán, Rubens, Claude, Poussin.< More
