spain: sacred, profane

I saw the small but interesting show "The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700" at the National Gallery. It wasgreat to see paintings of saints (by Diego Velázquez, Francisco Zurbarán, and co.) along with polychromed (painted) saint sculptures by artists who are far less famous now, at least outside of Spain. Only some of the images above are from the show, but you get the idea -- intense, tenebrous pieces.

Not to make light of religious traditions and gory martyrdom, but I love that Saint Lucy has her eyes on a plate. OK, speaking of making light... Seeing this show made me think of a Spanish calendar that totally takes and runs with devotional imagery. Produced by a gay group as a fundraiser for AIDS awareness/treatment, note that some calendar images on this site are NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Some picks:

Ha ha, he is rocking that mantilla.

This is related only it that is art from Spain, and fabulous and weird:
Goya-fabulous.

And this is just sweet:
At the Prado Museum, photo by Matias Costa for The New York Times.