INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY HE ENRIQUE VIGUERA, AMBASSADOR OF SPAIN TO AUSTRALIA

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1 Italian Masterpieces from Spain s Royal Court National Gallery of Victoria INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY HE ENRIQUE VIGUERA, AMBASSADOR OF SPAIN TO AUSTRALIA Ministers, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen: It is a real pleasure for me and for my wife, Marta, to be here tonight at this fabulous National Gallery of Victoria for the inauguration of the Italian Masterpieces from Spain's Royal Court exhibition, which portrays a variety of the best pieces of Italian art that have been, for centuries, in possession of the Spanish Kings and Queens and deposited in the Prado Museum of Madrid. I am delighted to acknowledge the presence among us of my colleague and good friend, the Ambassador of Italy to Australia, HE Pier Francesco Zazo and his charming wife. Thank you for joining us on this memorable occasion. I would also like to welcome Ms Jane Hardy, the Ambassador of Australia to Spain, and her husband Vitas, an artist himself. Italian Masterpieces is the second exhibition by the Prado Museum in Australia in two years. The first one was in 2012 in Brisbane, where we had the opportunity to enjoy a great collection of four centuries of Spain's finest art. Brisbane was a major success and, based on this precedent, we sincerely expect that this Museo del Prado Melbourne exhibition will also be an outstanding one. I feel very fortunate to be the Ambassador of Spain to Australia while these two major exhibitions from the Prado Museum take place. I don t think any of my colleagues, Ambassadors of Spain, anywhere in the world, were able to ever enjoy this unique circumstance to have two exhibitions of the Prado!

2 As we say in Spanish No hay dos sin tres that we could translate as If there are two there must be three. Therefore, I encourage those with the capacity and responsibilities to take advantage of the contacts and try to organize a third edition in the near future! Everybody knows that Spain and Italy are indeed very very close countries. Not only in geographical terms, but also culturally: for instance, take our respective languages, Italian and Spanish, derived from latin. They could be the best example. The arts are no exception: Italian masters have always had a great influence in Spanish painting. Remember the fascination Emperor Charles V and his successors had for Italian art, namely for Tiziano, Raphael, Tintoretto and many others, some of whose best paintings you can enjoy at the present exhibition. Many of these artists came to work in Spain, some of them for the Royal Court. Mirroring this dynamic, also many great Spanish painters had Italian experiences and were truly influenced by their Italian counterparts: Berruguete, Ribera (Lo Spagnoletto), El Greco, Velázquez Goya, Sorolla etc... The political connections greatly contributed to that close and active cultural interaction in both directions. Few people today would know that at the beginning of the XVIth. century the Hapsburg inherited Milan, Sicily, Naples and Sardinia and that most of these territories were directly or indirectly linked to the Crown of Spain, with some brief hiatuses, until the reunification of Italy in King Charles III was himself vice-roy of Naples for almost 25 years before becoming King of Spain in the late Eighteenth Century. From then on his successors, the Bourbon Two Sicilies dynasty, would rule Naples until the reunification. However, the same can be said about the Italian political influence in Spain. Think of the times of the Romans: two emperors, Trajan and Adrian, were born

3 in Hispania as Spain was named during the Roman domination. In modern times, several Italian born personalities played a leading role in Spain s politics as what nowadays we would consider Prime Ministers: Mercurino Gattinara, first chancellor of Charles Vth and ideologue of the Empire. Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, Prime Minister of Phillip the Vth., the Marquises of Grimaldi and Schillaci both working for Charles IIIrd. It is also worth noticing that Amadeo de Saboya, from an Italian royal dynasty, was chosen as Spanish King in the second half of the XIX century, with the hope he would bring greater stability to Spain. He was not successful in stabilising the situation -and he was eventually sacked as was his predecessor-, but he found the time to visit Australia and, according to history books, to give his name to one of the many lakes you have in the outback: lake Amadeus. There we have a nice link between Australia, Italy and Spain! These close political connections also translated into the extraordinary economic and social relations that have always existed among our societies and peoples, which have prevailed to the present day. You can feel the Spanish influence in Italy in the same way you may feel the Italian imprint in Spain. The manifestations of our common life are endless. We are, INDEED, very proud to belong to the same culture, to share equal values and principles, when it comes to family, community or lifestyle, since they have been directly inherited from the genius of Greece, from the power of Rome, from the spirit of the Renaissance and also from the beliefs of Catholicism. Spain did not only embrace those values but was also able to successfully project them to the new world, America, thanks to the ability and expertise of great Italians such as Copernico, Galileo, Cristobal Colón (allow me to say his name in Spanish), Americo Vespucci and so many others-. And it is not precisely by chance that our present King Juan Carlos was born in Rome, the eternal city, la ciudad eterna as we call it.

4 Ladies and gentlemen, I found the idea of showing Italian pictures from the Prado Museum -probably the most complete collection of Italian paintings in the world outside Italy-, and bringing this exhibition to Melbourne simply extraordinarily brilliant. It gives Spain the opportunity, through its most distinguished art institution, the Prado Museum, to be once again very present in Australia, with its culture walking side by side with the incredible expansion of Spanish private companies in this country over the last few years. Alternatively, it is also a friendly gesture from the Australian public institutions (the State Government, the Federal Government, the National Gallery of Victoria) towards the large community of Italian origin in Victoria and in Australia at large, granting them the opportunity to enjoy great paintings that, otherwise, they would have never had the chance to enjoy neither in Italy nor in Australia. I am sure that the Spanish, Latin American and Southern European local communities in Australia will very much appreciate it as well, for they have so much in common with Italy and Spain. Nevertheless, everybody, absolutely everybody, since art is universal, and good art is appreciated by all, will enjoy Italian Masters as one of the most intense and complete exhibitions of Italian art ever shown outside Italy and indeed in Australia. There are two personalities without whom this endeavour would have never become a reality and to whom I would like to pay special tribute: first of all, Tony Ellwood, the present director of the National Gallery of Victoria and former director of the Queensland Art Gallery, the two museums where the Prado exhibitions have taken place. Secondly, Miguel Zugaza, Director of the

5 Prado Museum who has had the vision to foster special new links with Australia. I really thank them both for the courage and leadership shown for it will very much be in the benefit of the bilateral relations between Spain and Australia. However, there are many other individuals and institutions that have significantly contributed to the organisation of this magnificent exhibition: the government of Victoria, the Federal Government and other major private sponsors and donors whose logos you will find in the main posters of the exhibition like Mazda, Singapore Airlines or the newspaper The Australian. I would like to extend to them my gratitude. Finally, my recognition would be incomplete without mentioning Arts Exhibition Australia, its President, the remarkable Melbournian Harold Mitchell, who is also co-chairman of the Spain's Australia Council Foundation, and, of course, its CEO, Ms Carol Henry, who has been recently decorated by the King of Spain for her encouragement and promotion of the art of Spain in Australia. To all of them, to all of you I thank you very much for making this great Exhibition possible. Thank you! Enrique Viguera