Highlights of Spanish Baroque painting at Blanton Museum in Austin

Baroque masterpieces travel to the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin for “Spirit & Splendor: El Greco, Velázquez, and the Hispanic Baroque.” On view from August 24, 2025, through February 1, 2026, this major exhibition presents 57 works from the renowned collection of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library.

Founded in 1904 by philanthropist Archer M. Huntington, The Hispanic Society houses one of the most significant collections of Spanish art outside of Spain. Presenting this collection marks a special moment in the Blanton’s history. From 1980 to 1998, the museum was known as the Archer M. Huntington Gallery — in tribute to Huntington’s foundational support for building a university art museum at UT Austin. This legacy continues today in the museum’s Huntington Galleries, which display works from the Blanton’s collection.

“The Hispanic Society’s collection is unmatched in its depth and beauty, and we’re honored to bring these masterpieces to Austin for the first time,” said Simone Wicha, Director of the Blanton Museum of Art. “This exhibition reflects the Blanton’s evolution into a museum of global reach while remaining deeply rooted in our region’s cultural history. It offers Texas audiences a rare chance to encounter iconic works by artists like Velázquez and El Greco alongside equally powerful paintings from colonial Latin America — illuminating the intertwined legacies of faith, empire, and artistic exchange.”

“Spirit & Splendor” focuses on paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries — an era when Spain established itself as the first global empire, after invading territories in the so-called New World, as well as in the Netherlands, Italy, and the Philippines. The wealth extracted from these regions, along with the expansion of Spain’s intellectual horizons, ushered in two centuries of remarkable literary and artistic achievement. During this time, as the title “Spirit & Splendor” suggests, the Spanish Catholic Church commissioned art to reaffirm its teachings and evoke the sacred, while the royal court relied on the arts to enhance its splendor and prestige.

This exhibition showcases this rich and complex artistic legacy, featuring works by renowned Spanish painters such as El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, shown alongside Latin American artists like Luis Juárez, Baltasar de Echave Ibía, José de Páez, and Melchor Pérez Holguín, who integrated local artistic traditions with the global Baroque aesthetic.

The Blanton’s presentation is co organized by Rosario I. Granados, Marilynn Thoma Curator, Art of the Spanish Americas, and Holly Borham, Curator of Prints, Drawings, and European Art.

“Visitors will surely be captivated by Velázquez’s sensitive portraits and El Greco’s visionary religious works, while also discovering the rich range of styles of Spanish painting — from hyper-realistic trompe-l’oeil still lifes to jewel-like paintings on copper,” added Borham.

The range of works on view is extended with two additions from the Blanton’s own collection, including a rare sculpture by Luisa Roldán, the earliest documented woman sculptor in Spain.

Highlights from The Hispanic Society’s collection include:

• Pietà by El Greco, circa 1574–1576. This oil painting synthesizes many of El Greco’s artistic influences, most notably Michelangelo, while also highlighting his unique style, which combines naturalistic portraiture, robust painterly techniques, and radical compositional experiments.
• Copy of the Portrait of Juan de Pareja by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, after Diego Velázquez, circa 1656–1657. This is the earliest known copy of Velázquez’s portrait of Juan de Pareja, a man of African descent who was enslaved in the artist’s household and later became a successful painter after gaining his freedom.
• The Wedding at Cana by Nicolás Correa, 1696. One of only four signed works by the Mexican painter, this enconchado panel uses mother of pearl inlay to illuminate a canonical biblical scene — an example of the Hispanic Baroque’s blend of global influences.
• Portrait of a Little Girl by Diego Velázquez, circa 1648–1642. This unfinished portrait of an unknown girl — one of only two portraits Velázquez made of non-royal children — captures his realist style and skilled brushwork.

The Blanton’s presentation marks the final stop for these artworks, following exhibitions at the Boca Raton Museum of Art and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Exhibition Programming

Public tours of the exhibition will be offered in English and Spanish on select Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays throughout the run of the exhibition.

Sunday, September 14, 2025, participate in “Art with an Expert,” part of the museum’s Blanton All Day program. Amanda Wunder, historian and professor at the City University New York, will discuss Spanish fashion in the early modern period. More info will be made available at www.blantonmuseum.org/allday.

On Friday, October 24, 2025, B Scene, The Blanton’s art party, celebrates “Spirit & Splendor” with a themed night of live music, dancing, art talks & activities, and late-night hours. More info will be made available at www.blantonmuseum.org/bscene.

“Spirit & Splendor: El Greco, Velázquez, and the Hispanic Baroque” is organized by the Hispanic Society of America, with support from The Museum Box.

About the Blanton Museum of Art

Founded in 1963, the Blanton Museum of Art holds the largest public collection in Central Texas with more than 21,000 objects. Recognized as the home of Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, its major collecting areas are modern and contemporary U.S. and Latin American art, Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings, and prints and drawings.

About the Hispanic Society Museum & Library

Founded in 1904 by the American scholar, philanthropist, and collector Archer M. Huntington, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library houses one of the world’s premier collections of art from Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Philippines. Located in a historic Beaux-Arts building on Audubon Terrace in the dynamic Washington Heights neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, the Hispanic Society is home to over half a million objects spanning thousands of years of art history across three continents.

Unparalleled in scope and quality, the collection includes works by Baroque and early modern masters like El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Luisa Roldán, and Francisco de Goya; visionary 20th century artists like Joaquín Sorolla; and major figures from Latin America such as Sebastián López de Arteaga, Juan Rodríguez Juárez, and José Clemente Orozco along with extensive collections of antiquities, ceramics, textiles, and decorative arts.