Coinciding with the Beyond Caravaggio exhibition, running at the gallery from the 12th October, The Adoration of the Shepherds and The Adoration of the Kings will be on display from the 28th September until January 2017.
Displayed in the UK for the first time, Maíno’s The Adoration of the Shepherds and The Adoration of the Kings will be available for the public to view from the 28th September until the 29th January 2017.
This will be a rare opportunity for the National Gallery to showcase the work of the Spanish painter, whose name remains unfamiliar to those outside of Spain.
These two paintings, measuring over three metres in height, originally formed a part of a altarpiece painted between 1612 and 1614 for the high altar of the Dominican church of San Pedro Mártir in Toledo. The altarpiece took three years to complete – despite the initial contract stipulating that it be completed in eight months.
As well as being Maíno’s greatest works, the two Adorations are also among the earliest Spanish paintings to have been executed in a Caravaggesque style. Both pieces are significant in exploring Caravaggio’s influence across Europe.
Letizia Treves, Curator of Later Italian, Spanish, and French 17th-century Paintings said “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to display Maíno’s two Adorations in London. Not only are these masterpieces being shown to our visitors for the first time, but I also hope that they will provide an added dimension to the story of Caravaggio’s extended influence across Europe – a subject explored in Beyond Caravaggio, an exhibition showing concurrently in the Sainsbury Wing.”
The son of a Milanese cloth merchant, Maíno was born in Pastrana, a Spanish town known for its silk trade and production. The two Adorations reveal Maíno’s response to the stylistic tendencies prevalent in early 17th- century Rome, combining the naturalism of Caravaggio with the refined palette of Orazio Gentileschi, as well as the more classicising styles of Annibale Carracci, and Guido Reni.
National Gallery Director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi said: “Maíno’s Adorations were painted over four hundred years ago but the brightness of the palette, the variety of people represented and the combination of naturalism and artificiality, give the paintings a surprisingly modern look. Maíno, a friend of Velázquez, deserves to be much better known.”
Maíno’s Adorations: Heaven on Earth will be on display at the National Gallery from the 28th September until the 29th January 2017. For more information visit: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/ma%C3%ADnos-adorations-heaven-on-earth.