Máscaras

Rafael Alberti, Vicente Aleixandre and Francisco Ayala coexist for two months with 'Las Meninas' and 'La Maja Desnuda' thanks to the exhibition 'Máscaras' at the Prado. The exhibition features 18 images taken by Alberto Schommer, 2013 National Photography Prize winner, along with portraits from the museum itself painted by Spanish artists betwen the 16th and 20th centuries.

That's how we get Juan de Ribera face to face with José Luis Aranguren, Goya exchanging glances with Antonio Saura, and a young Velázquez staring at Antonio López. Schommer (Vitoria, 1928) has captured like no one else the tears, gestures and postures of generations of writers, philosophers, historians and artists from various disciplines. Each portrait, all in black and white, shows its subject with a fixed and empty gaze, like those of the busts of ancient Greece.

This style of portrait, showing just the bust from a fully frontward facing position in an indefinite space and with direct lighting, was resuscitated by El Greco, who was a major influence for Velázquez and Luis de Morales. See for yourself when you take in the exhibition at the Prado, which also features the artist and modern painting.