pinned.events

The City Council of Valencia has unveiled its main exhibition for the year, "José Vergara Gimeno (1726-1799). Painting, Fame and Fortune," organized to mark the third centenary of the birth of the celebrated Valencian painter and on view at the City Museum until 6 September. Through a careful selection of paintings, sketches, and drawings, the exhibition traces the work of one of the great masters of the XVIII century and highlights his role in the creation of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos and in the consolidation of academic art in Valencia. The show brings together 85 works from institutions including the City Museum, the Benlliure House Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia, the Zaragoza Museum, the Bancaja Foundation, the Museo Nacional del Prado, and the National Archaeological Museum, as well as several private collections. It offers a comprehensive and updated view of José Vergara’s work, placing his production within the artistic, social, and intellectual context of his time. The exhibition also examines the artist’s stylistic development, from late Baroque dynamism to Neoclassical serenity, with particular attention to his use of color, composition, and his ability to depict sacred scenes with both emotion and technical precision. The display is structured around four of the eight large canvases from the former Chapel of Santa Rosa de Lima, painted by José Vergara under the patronage of Archbishop Mayoral as part of the decoration of the Royal House of Education, an educational institution founded in the XVIII century and now the seat of the City Council of Valencia.