Sculpter la couleur - Chefs-d’œuvre du Musée national de sculpture, Valladolid

Organized at the same time and in the same space as the monographic exhibition devoted to the painter Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664), which allows for an interplay of viewpoints through a scenography conceived jointly, the exhibition invites visitors to discover 17th-century Spanish sculpture. It largely comprises religious wooden sculptures polychromed with striking naturalism, which help illuminate the cultural and religious milieu in which the works of the great Spanish painters of the period were created, among whom Zurbarán, Velázquez, and Murillo stand at the forefront, at a time when the links between painting and sculpture were very close. The exhibition will particularly highlight the loan of a complete processional paso, a monumental ensemble of five life-size carved and painted figures dating from the early 17th century, the work of Gregorio Fernández, a leading sculptor then active in Valladolid, displayed at life-size scale to allow the most direct possible observation. The route will continue along several thematic axes: the cult of relics and the role of intercessory saints, the clothed statues, the representation of the sufferings of Christ and the Virgin, private devotion and the Immaculate Conception. It will thus be possible to explore the different uses and meanings of these sculptures, but also to better understand their materiality, regional and stylistic inflections, and the personalities of the principal sculptors of the period, active in Castile or Andalusia, through other works by Gregorio Fernández, but also by Alonso Cano, Juan de Mesa, José de Mora, Pedro de Mena, Jerónimo Francisco and Miguel Jerónimo García, José de Arce, Pedro Roldán, and Luisa Roldán, one of the rare women artists to have enjoyed a dazzling career up to the royal court. In addition to the Camino del Calvario paso, among the major loans of this exhibition, never seen before in France, are notably the Cristo de la Luz also by Gregorio Fernández, a life-size Christ on the Cross with striking naturalism, and Saint John the Baptist, Alonso Cano's masterpiece. The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist by Luisa Roldán and The Immaculate Conception by Pedro de Mena, dated 1680 and linked to a competition organized by the Bishop of Granada, are two major recent acquisitions of the museum, spectacularly restored, and will also be presented.