The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting & Sculpture 1600–1700
National Gallery, until 24 January 2010
If Spanish 17th-century painting and sculpture don’t immediately appeal to you, be prepared to try the new show at the National Gallery — it’s a revelation. I was brought up in the Church of England and used rather to look down on the bleeding hearts of Roman Catholic iconography. Of course, some of the sculpture you see in Catholic churches can be crude or even vulgar — just as some of the stuff that passes for modern art in English churches is misjudged and misplaced — but the polychrome religious sculpture of 17th-century Spain is magnificent. Its verisimilitude is shocking, its craftsmanship remarkable. Never did I expect to find Velázquez put (almost) in the shade by sculpture, but it happens at the NG. It’s a triumph of a show.
The first room is crowded in comparison to the rest of the exhibition, which is laid out with plenty of space between exhibits.
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