"Tu solus Didacus in Urbe". Velàzquez's second stay in Rome.

SERIES: Travels and sojourns of artists in Rome. 
SPEAKER: David García Cueto, director of the Department of Italian and French Painting (up to 1800) at the Prado National Museum 
DATE: Tuesday, April 9, 6 p.m. 

On the occasion of the Holy Year 1650, many illustrious figures convened in Rome. Among them was Diego Velázquez, then painter to the King of Spain. The artist was commissioned to purchase and have executed in the papal capital a series of sculptures for the sovereign, and thus returned to a city he had known twenty years earlier. Now, however, as the sources point out, he was there not to learn but to teach, especially the radically modern manner of his portraits. Several members of the papal court, and first and foremost Pope Innocent X, would be portrayed by him, earning him that as a painter he was considered by some to be "solus in Urbe."

David García Cueto studied Art History at the University of Granada where he then served as professor between 2012 and 2020 . His studies focused, among other topics, on the artistic and cultural relations between Spain and Italy in the 17th century and on Spanish art in the Golden Age. He has been the scientific leader of two national research and development projects: Pictorial Copying in the Hispanic Monarchy, 16th-18th Centuries (2015-2018) and Art Exhibition in the Hispanic Monarchy, 16th-18th Centuries (2019-2020). He is editor of the volume collecting the results of the first research project: Copies of Painting Masterpieces in the Collections of Austria and the Prado Museum (2021). Since 2020 he has been Director of the Department of Italian and French Painting (up to 1800) at the Prado National Museum. For the same museum in 2023 he curated the exhibition Guido Reni.

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