19 Oct-6 Feb 2005. The Museo del Prado is presenting this major exhibition covering the development of Spanish portrait painting from the late 15th to the early 20th century. More than 80 paintings are included by the leading names in this genre in Spain such as Juan de Flandes, El Greco, Francisco Ribalta, Diego Velzquez, Francisco de Goya, Pablo Picasso and Joan Mir. This is the first such sweeping survey of the history of the portrait in Spain. It follows a broad perspective to analyse the stylistic development of the genre as well as the different social meanings of the portrait in Spain, the self-image created by sitters over the centuries and how they wished this image to be transmitted, and the representational devices used by artists at different periods. The paintings have been selected and grouped according to aesthetic, chronological and typological criteria. The various sections include Origins, El Greco, Portrait and Reality, Velzquez and Goya, The Portrait and the Avant-Gardes, etc and include works from the Prados own collection, as well as other leading Spanish and international institutions.