Prado Is Lending a Velázquez to Norton Simon Museum
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| Diego Velázquez, Queen Mariana of Austria, 1652-53. Museo del Prado |
A sign at the Norton Simon Museum indicates that the Prado will lend Diego Velázquez's Queen Mariana of Austria to the Pasadena institution next winter. The loan reciprocates for Francisco de Zurbarán's Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose, owned by the NSM and currently on view in Madrid.
The Prado's Queen Marianna of Austria is considered the primary version of three full-length pictures and numerous smaller variants. Though the Spanish museum has 65 paintings by Velázquez and his circle, there are only a handful of Velázquez paintings in American museums, none west of Fort Worth.
Norton Simon was underbidder for Velázquez's Juan de Pareja when auctioned in 1970. That of course went to the Metropolitan Museum (for $5.5 million), where it is one of the signature European paintings.
Queen Mariana of Austria will be on view at the NSM Dec. 13, 2024, to March 24, 2025.
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| Photo by Gerald Sequeira |
Comments
Agreed. It is also a signature European painting for all time, everywhere.
Still, the master's finest portrait is of "Innocent X," at Rome's Doria Pamphilj.
[If you want to see it on your next trip, confirm ahead. It spends far too much time on the road.]
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Innocent_X
Small mercies.
https://wamu.org/story/24/03/25/national-gallery-art-anne-vallayer-coster-painting-dc-missing-restored/
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https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/03/06/how-a-great-lost-painting-ended-up-at-a-dc-museum/