Art News

Spain’s Prado Museum has the rare opportunity of hosting a large Hermitage exhibition

MADRID (AP).- Spain’s Prado museum is hosting a large exhibition of European art lent by Russia’s Hermitage, a rare opportunity to see such work outside the vast St. Petersburg museum. Two large paintings by Rembrandt, an imposing Caravaggio and a historic segment of early 20th-century art, an area in which the Hermitage’s collection excels, are among the close to 180 items. Works by Spanish artists Diego Velazquez, Pablo Picasso and Diego de Rivera temporarily return home, flanked by famous pieces by Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne and Wassily Kandinsky. Rare items that once belonged to Russia’s czars and aristocracy include Faberge jewels and gold items dating from as early as the fifth century B.C. “There has never been such an exhibition, of and about the Hermitage, outside Russia,” the Russian museum’s director, Mikhail Piotrovsky, said by video link.