German Cultural Exchange Exhibition in Spain

The exhibition “The last Gothic fires. German sculpture around 1500” has opened at the Spanish National Museum of Sculpture in the city of Valladolid as a part of an exchange program between the Berlin State Museums and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.

The inauguration of the exhibition took place on Tuesday, July 5th. It will remain open until November 6th, 2016. The exhibition showcases Gothic sculpture, which were transported for the occasion from the Berlin Bode-Museum. “The German sculpture around 1500” is the first event of its kind where Spaniards have the opportunity to see German sculpture jewels from the time of the Medieval to the Modern Age.

The inauguration was attended by His Excellency the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Kingdom of Spain, Peter Tempel. He highlighted the fact that “the aim of the exhibition is not only to showcase the most beautiful pieces of the collection of the Bode-Museum, but also to deepen the knowledge about the cultural, political and social relations between Germany and Spain at the time.

Among other guests present were also María Bolaños, the Director of the National Museum of Sculpture, Michael Eissenhauer, the Director of the Berlin State Museums, and Miguel Ángel Recio, the General Director for Fine Arts of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. In their speeches, they all highlighted that the significance of the exhibition lies in its deepening of cultural relations between Germany and Spain.

The works showcased at the exhibition include “Three Angels with Jesus Child” by Hans Multscher Circle, "Two representations of St. Sebastian” attributed to Franz Maidburg and the “Portrait of the patrician and trader from Augsburg, Bartholomäus Welser V.” by the “Wolfgang Thenn” Master (his last work is proof of a deepening of the understanding of the bilateral relations at the time of the Spanish colonization of the “New World”).

The German sculpture exhibition is only a section of a greater German-Spanish cultural exchange project between the Berlin State Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/ Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz) and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

In the same time frame within which this exhibition is shown in Valladolid, an exhibition titled “Spanish Art of the Golden Century” is showing at the Berliner Gemäldegalerie (Berlin Art Gallery) featuring works by Spanish artists from the Baroque Era, such as Velázquez.