Spanish Paintings From Russian Collections. The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts will open an exhibition of Spanish painting from the collections in Russia

Abstract

Russia holds the first largest collection of canvas by great Spanish masters outside of Spain, including paintings by El Greco, Murillo, Ribera, Zurbaran, Goya, and others. In November 2023 the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts presents an exhibition of Spanish paintings from its own collections, as well as the works of art from the Hermitage and regional museums. In this interview, Svetlana Zagorskaya, curator of Spanish painting at the Pushkin Museum, talks about the collections of Spanish painting in Russia, the history of their acquisition and meticulous work of attributing paintings. Particular attention is paid to Svetlana Zagorskaya’s discoveries of the authorship of the canvas by Jusepe de Ribera «Saint James the Greater» and the painting by Bartolomeo Murillo «Saint Catherine of Alexandria», which open the exposition of old masters in the main building of the Museum. The purpose of the upcoming exhibition, apart from being educational, is to show the cultural attraction of Spain and Russia, two countries at the extreme ends of Europe. Since the end of the 19th century many Russian artists visited Spain and looked for new motives for inspiration, at the same time Russian collectors bought a lot of works by Spanish artists. Thus, an invisible but strong cultural bridge was being built between the two countries, and it still exists in our time.