WEST PALM BEACH, FL.-Spain in the Age of Exploration 1492–1819, a blockbuster exhibition featuring masterpieces from the collections of the Patrimonio Nacional of Spain will be on view at the Norton Museum of Art from February 2 through May 1, 2005. The exhibition features one hundred thirty-three objects, many leaving Spain for the first time, including masterworks by such artists as Bosch, Titian, El Greco, Velázquez and Goya, among others. Also included are sculptures, such as Bernini’s Crucifix, decorative arts, suits of armor, tapestries, scientific instruments used by the early explorers, early maps, and first-edition books, including a rare 1494 account of Columbus’s “discovery” of the Americas.

Spain in the Age of Exploration 1492–1819 charts the evolution of Spanish attitudes towards knowledge, exploration, and faith during three centuries of Spain’s golden age beginning with Columbus’s first voyage in 1492 and ending with the signing of the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819, which ceded Florida and the Northwest Territories to the United States. The great majority of the objects in the exhibition have been selected from the collections of the Royal Family, which are now administered by the Patrimonio Nacional of Spain. Lending to the exhibition are palaces, museums, monasteries, libraries, and archives in Madrid, Aranjuez, Segovia, and other Spanish cities, including El Escorial and Museo del Prado. Audio tours, exhibition text panels, and brochures will be available in both English and Spanish. Spain in the Age of Exploration 1492–1819 is co-organized by the Seattle Art Museum and the Patrimonio Nacional of Spain.

Dr. Christina Orr-Cahall, Norton Museum of Art Director, comments, “We are honored to have been chosen as the only East Coast venue for this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition. Visitors will be able to marvel at significant works by famous artists, which rarely ever leave Spain, and discover works by notable silversmiths, armorers, weavers, and cartographers who contributed to the golden age of Spain and its enduring influence in the Americas.”