War, Violence and Death in the Mariano Moret Collection

Figures that die. Figures that kill. For love, for hate, for justice, for vengeance, for defending a territory or an ideal. Death, its threat, power and victory over the men is the common theme and thread of the 68 works pertaining to the Mariano Moret Collection that have been selected for this exhibition. German, Dutch and Italian engravings that show violence, war, and death through works by Aldegrever, Altdorfer, the Beham brothers, Georg Pencz, Marcantonio Raimondi, Lucas van Leyden and other important engravers from the 15h, 16th and 17th centuries. Scenes in which the influence of Humanism, neoplatonic ideas and the new aesthetic universe that looks into antiquity and revolves around the representation of the human essence are visible. Violence shown through passion, beauty, memories of the antiquity, mythological stories and characters. Images that censure sinful acts and sometimes seem an invitation to sin. Alluring kidnappings, sensual suicides, attractive bodies fighting, murderers who love or lovers who kill. War, violence and death together or separately, have a significant presence in men, art, and in the engravings of the Mariano Moret Collection. Works of art that take us to a tumultuous period of conflicts unable to be resolved, wars and warriors, religious schisms, extinct ancient Gods that are recovered by art to transmit messages or simply show images of an almost sinful violence. The excitement, tension and dramatic intensity which are implicit in many of these themes lend them strength, beauty and a unique charm.

The exhibition War, Violence and Death in the Mariano Moret Collection is a satellite event to the XXI Congress of Art History. A catalogue has been published on the occasion of the exhibition. The author of the catalogue text is Nuria Blaya, Professor of Art History at Florida Universitaria.