The Baptism of Christ

The Huesca Museum houses a series of works that are on loan from the Prado Museum (Museo Nacional del Prado). They are a set of paintings that originally belonged to the old Museum of the Trinity (Museo de la Trinidad). The museum collected works gathered during the Spanish government's seizure of church property in the desamortización, or Spanish confiscation, in the 19th century. Pieces taken from religious institutions in Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, and Ávila were housed in the Trinidad Calzada convent in Madrid, from which the museum took its name. In 1872, it was decided that the collection would be included in the Prado Museum. In 1879, thanks to the intervention of Valentín Carderera, a great and erudite man from Huesca, a set of 13 works were loaned to the recently created Huesca Museum to form part of its collection. Twelve of these remain today, after one was removed in 1986. This collection of pieces loaned from the Prado Museum forms part of what is known as the disperse Prado (Prado disperso). A remarkable part of this collection is the Baptism of Christ (Bautismo de Cristo), painted by Juan de Pareja, slave and assistant to the painter Diego Velázquez. The great complexity of the composition and the rich color palette mark a move away from his master's style, bringing together countless influences: the work of his contemporaries, Paolo Veronese's compositions, Jacopo Tintoretto's colors, and El Greco's use of volume.