FINE ARTS MUSEUM Museo de Bellas Artes – Seville
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After Madrid’s Prado, the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville is considered to have the 2nd most important collection of fine art in Spain. The museum’s highlights are local Andalusian paintings from the 19th century and Baroque paintings from the 17th century.
There are paintings from several famous artists such as Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Velázquez, Goya and El Greco. In addition, the museum is housed in a 17th century convent that has some beautiful architecture. It is the perfect setting for such a collection of art.
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Tuesday to Saturday: 9am to 9pm Sundays & holidays: 9am to 3pm Mondays: closed Closed: Jan 1, Jan 6, May 1, Dec 24-25, Dec 31
The Museo de Bellas Artes is composed of 14 exhibition rooms. It is recommended to visit them in chronological order.
Rooms 1 to 4: The birth of Sevillian art, from the Christian reconquest in 1248 to the arrival of Baroque in the beginning of the 17th century.
Rooms 5 to 10: Sevillian Baroque pantings from the 17th century.
Rooms 11 to 14: Paintings from the 18th to the 20th century.
The Museum of Fine Arts was originally built in the 17th century as a convent called the Convento de la Merced Calzada. It is one of the best examples of Late Renaissance (Mannerism) architecture in Andalusia. The structure is comprised of 3 main patios/cloisters:
Other highlights from the building include the main facade, the imperial staircase with its dome and the church which is the star of the museum. Besides being the most beautiful room in the museum, the church also contains works from the most important Sevillian Baroque painters such as Murillo, Herrera el viejo, Roelas and Zurbarán.
In 1835, more than 200 years after its construction, the building was taken by the government during the Confiscations of Mendizábal and turned into a Museo de Pinturas (Museum of Paintings).
Over the next several years, more items were confiscated from the church and re-purposed in the museum. It wasn’t until the 20th century when the museum grew much larger thanks to donations from private collectors.
It was once believed that this was a self-portrait of El Greco himself but today it’s thought that the painting is of his only son, Jorge Manuel.
The two saints appear holding the Giralda tower. Sevillians believed that the Seville Cathedral and Giralda didn’t collapse during the earthquake from 1504 because these two saints were protecting it.
Portrait of the famous poet painted by his brother. Great example of the Romanticism epoch (passionate, melancholic, dramatic, etc.)
Early work of Murillo representing the virgin, in a scene full of movement and dynamism.
Represents a miracle that occurred in 1084 in the Cartuja de Grenoble.
Ordered by the Cartuja de Santa María de las Cuevas. It represents the spiritual principles of the Cartusian monks: silence, devotion to the virgin and the importance of fasting.
One of only two works from Velázquez in the museum. Portrait of Don Cristóbal Suárez de Ribera, a clergyman from Seville who founded a brotherhood dedicated to San Hermenegildo.
San Jerónimo coils in pain so as not to be tempted to look at the courtesans who are engaged in provoking him.
This portrait was painted by Goya in gratitude to the Aragonese canon D. José Duaso who housed allies fighting against Napoleon during the Peninsular War.
Scene of female workers at a tobacco factory, showing a maternal scene and the camaraderie among all the workers.
Modernist painting reflecting the Sevillian beauty through three women prepared to enjoy the city’s fiesta.
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