Il Regno: A Day at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library: Part I

Bronze statue of El Cid Campeador on his horse Babieca (1927)
on Audubon Terrace, located in front of the Hispanic Society
Museum and Library by Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973)

See Part II, Part III

Our recent visit to the Hispanic Society Museum & Library began outdoors, with the Terrace Sculpture setting a sober, almost monastic tone before we even stepped inside. After the long commute to Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, it felt less like a prelude than an invitation to slow down and recalibrate the eye.

(L) One of two limestone lions with globes between their paws guarding the museum entrance. (R) Another look at the equestrian statue of El Cid

Two monumental limestone equestrian reliefs on the façade depict Boabdil, the last Nasrid king of Granada, and Don Quixote astride his gaunt horse Rocinante

(L) One of four seated life-size bronze warriors surrounding the El Cid
monument. (R) Bronze memorial tablet dedicated to Charles Pratt
Huntington (1871-1919), the architect who designed the Audubon
Terrace complex and the Hispanic Society buildings

Inside, Goya and the Age of Revolution grounded the visit in moral gravity and historical tension, while Joaquín Sorolla’s long-term Vision of Spain display provided a luminous counterweight.

The Third of May, 1808, oil on canvas, Unknown
Spanish artist, after Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

(L) Allegorical Portrait of Goya, ca. 1860, oil on canvas, by Eugenio Lucas
Velázquez (Spanish, 1817-1870) (R) Brigadier General Alberto Foraster,
1804, oil on canvas, by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)

Sketch for a Portrait of an Officer of the King's Dragoons, ca. 1808,
oil on tin, unknown Spanish artist after Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

(L) Victims of War, 1860-1870, oil on canvas, by Eugenio Lucas Velázquez (Spanish, 1817 - 1870). (R) Don Manuel Lapeña, later Marquis of Bondad Real, 1799, oil on canvas, by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828)

Sad forebodings of what is going to happen, plate one of the series Disasters of
War, created 1810-20, by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)

Rightly or Wrongly/With or Without Reason, plate two of the series Disasters of
War, created 1810-20, by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)

What courage!/How Brave!, plate seven of the series Disasters of War,
created 1810-20, by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)

Where Goya confronts fracture and darkness, Sorolla bathes Spain in regional color and movement, offering not escape, but continuity.

(L) Bust of Joaquín Sorolla, bronze, 1932, by Mariano Benlliure y Gil (1862-1947). (R) One of 14 paintings known as Vision of Spain (1911)

Detail views of the Vision of Spain Gallery by Joaquín Sorolla

January 6, 2026

A Day at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library: Part I — Form, Revolution, and Light