Intro

More than one century ago, a man named Archer Milton Huntington started a collection of art that today continues to have no equal. Huntington was one of the main art collectors and philanthropists of the United States. He founded the Hispanic Society of America in 1904, an institution that 100 years later continues to reflect the vision of its benefactor, with a collection containing art, literature and all the facets of the culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America and the Philippines up to the beginning of the 20th century. The magnitude, depth and breadth of the Hispanic Society of America’s archives become even more impressive if one keeps in mind that, in great measure, they were gathered by only one collector. The chronological and thematic tour shows archaeological artefacts, Roman sculpture, ceramics, glasswork, furniture, woven fabrics, metalwork, Islamic and medieval art, works from the Golden Century, colonial art, Latin American art from the 16th century and Hispanic paintings from the 16th and 20th century. The Spanish paintings occupy a large part, with masterpieces of Universal Art; works like the Duchess of Alba by Francisco de Goya, and Gaspar de Guzmán, the Count-Duke Olivares by Diego Velázquez. Visions of the Hispanic World Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum and Library is an exhibition that offers the extraordinary possibility of contemplating, in Mexico, more than 200 works from the collection of this institution founded with the purpose of spreading Iberian culture in the United States.