While seventeenth-century European painting accounts for the bulk of its “ancient art” holdings, the BBVA Collection also boasts a good number of older works of exceptional quality and character. These paintings, in various genres and styles, give an account of the plurality and cultural wealth of the continent at a crucial moment for its historical and artistic future: the advent of the Modern Age. This exhibition focuses on some of these styles, grouping them together in the sections described below.

The show opens with a selection of late-gothic religious paintings on board from the late-fifteenth century, demonstrating the influence of Flemish painting and its ramifications in Spain. Several exceptional High-Aragon and Catalan examples testify to the way that specifically Gothic elements—golden backgrounds, marked folds or solemn expressions—now began to appear alongside others fully attributable to the Renaissance.

In the following room, a group of engravings taken from Civitates Orbis Terrarum give spectators an insight into the development of several Spanish cities in the sixteenth century. Widely considered the most comprehensive and detailed atlas of the modern world, whose publication and popularity were only possible thanks to the expansion of the printing press, it is absolutely essential for an understanding of the growth of cities in Europe at the time.

Another section is dedicated to portraiture, particularly humanist portraits, taking into account the special relevance of the genre and its spectacular development, as it became an instrument for the social and symbolic exaltation of the sitter and at once a new source of income for artists at a time when religious commissions fell into decline.

Finally, a group of Renaissance religious paintings demonstrate the manifold forms in which the models of Italian masters expanded throughout Europe during the sixteenth century, adapted in each case to local traditions. An example of this can be seen in the small altarpiece for private use attributed to Juan de Soreda. The composition and the treatment of the figures and landscape show an evident knowledge of the work of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.

In short, through this selection of just over twenty paintings from the BBVA Collection, the exhibition aspires to reflect the cultural diversity of Europe in a period of economic growth and territorial expansion. Over the various sections, the spectator will be able to contemplate in detail a number of excellent works by such distinguished artists as Pedro Díaz de Oviedo, Frans Hogenberg, Corneille de Lyon and Luis Vélez.