‘The Sacred Made Real’ stirs soul
Spicezee Bureau
London: ‘The Sacred Made Real’ exhibition offers a unique dichotomy of the marvelous and the terrible. The disturbing exhibition against dark grey walls of the National Gallery in London, is a spectacular show of painted space and real space, real light and painted shadows.
The sculptures offer a peek to see an art form rarely seen outside Spain, featuring masters of polychrome sculpture, including Pedro de Mena, Juan Martínez Montañés and Gregorio Fernández. It succeeds in demonstrating what painters of the Spanish Golden Age were able to achieve.
‘The Sacred Made Real’ is a landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age with works that are created to shock the senses.
According to reports, paintings, including masterpieces by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán, have been displayed for the very first time alongside Spain’s remarkable polychrome wooden sculptures.
The aim of the exhibition is to explore the intense dialogue between the arts of sculpture and painting, revealing that they were intricately linked and Interdependent.
The prominent sculptors have gone to great length to bring alive those historic moments. Use of glass eyes and tears, ivory teeth and human hair makes the sculptures very real. The separate skill of polychroming, performed by specially trained painters, adds to the effect with remarkable flesh tones.