Ispanskoe iskusstvo v sobranii Gosudarstvennogo Ėrmitazha

This exhibition catalogue publishes a selection of late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century paintings from the Hermitage, which has the largest collection of Spanish painting outside Spain. Presented in the catalog are 21 canvases from the late sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries, including those by the celebrated Ribalta, Ribera, Zurbaran, Velazquez, Murillo and Cano. Subsequent chapters catalogue other works originating in Spain: arms and armor (daggers, pistols, swords, a rifle from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries), bronzes, carved ivory, ceramics, glass, furniture, and embroidery. The origin of much of the Hermitage{u2019}s collection can be traced to such great nineteenth-century collectors such as A. P. Bazilevskii, who built his collection in the 1880s, and Baron A. L. Shtieglits, who bought works for the Central Institute of Technical Drawing in the 1870s. The Hermitage{u2019}s collection of Spanish applied and decorative art, like the painting collection, is one of the best in world outside Spain and nicely illustrates the distinct style of Spain that unites Islamic and Christian traditions. -- Summary written by John W. Emerich, Bronze Horseman Literary Agency.