Velazquez Portrait Makes US Debut at the MET
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- April 16, 2013
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art presented Monday Diego Velazquez's Portrait of Francesco I d'Este, one of the Spanish artist's most significant works and which is being shown for the first time in the United States. "This is one of the most important portraits by Velazquez, since in portraying an important political figure it fuses the most intimate personality of the duke that the painter captured in his studio with the nobleman's diplomatic side," the chairman of European paintings at the Met, Keith Christiansen, told Efe. Until July 14, visitors at the New York museum will be able to admire this work, considered one of the great portraits of the 17th century, on loan from Galleria Estense in Modena, Italy. The portrait is a true gem of that Italian gallery, which has had to close temporarily because of the damage caused by the earthquake that shook the Emilia Romagna region in May 2012. "The painting is a symbol of that Modena gallery," Christiansen said, and there
