Alba de Tormes is known for its pottery (and as the site of a Spanish defeat in the Peninsular War). From this month until October, it serves as the home of 120 Renaissance masterpieces in the exhibition, The Splendour of Painting in Valencia.
The exhibition takes place at the Basilica of Santa Teresa de Alba de Tormes, and features more than 120 works by artists such as Gonçal Peris, Joan Reixach, and Paolo de San Leocadio-all of whom were active in Valencia during the Renaissance. Many of the paintings were loaned from private collections, and up to 90% have never been on public display. The centerpiece is one of the greatest works of the Spanish Renaissance: Joan de Joanes' painting of Christ tied to a pillar, shortly before his crucifixion.
Curator José Gómez Frechina mounted the exhibition for two reasons. First, he focuses on artists who worked in Valencia, which, being a port city that linked Rome, Naples, and Flanders, became the Renaissance's entry point into Spain. "It was home to the greatest cultural splendour of the time - literary, social and economic," says Gómez Frechina. "Then Philip II establishes Madrid as the capital, with El Escorial, and Spain changes."
The latter part of the statement is reflective of his second reason for the exhibit: he chose Alba de Tormes as a venue because he wanted to take patrons from popular locations like Madrid and Barcelona, to the less-visited areas of Spain. "We want people to come to beautiful places like this so they can get to know them. History-wise, Alba de Tormes is just amazing: St Teresa of Ávila; Saint John of the Cross, the Duke of Alba. It was like the second royal court of Spain in the 16th century when it came to painters and artists," he said, adding: "We want to change the circuits so that people don't just see things like this in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville or Valencia."
Gómez Frechina describes the exhibition as a test. If it proves successful, he hopes other European exhibitions will follow in invigorating less popular places.
