The National Museum of Art, Palacio Diez de Medina is a museum in the city of

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

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. It has an important permanent collection of colonial paintings, including canvases by Melchor Pérez de Holguín, a painter 16th century and those of Gregorio Gamarra, a 17th-century painter.

Location

The museum is located right in front of the main square of the city of La Paz, Plaza Murillo, specifically at the intersection of the pedestrian promenade Calle Comercio and Calle Socabaya.

History

This building was the residence of the then Mayor Don Francisco Tadeo Diez de Medina y Vidango. Later it became the property of the Counts of Arana, subsequently during the La Paz revolution it became the property of the Marquises of Villaverde. At the end of the 19th century they functioned as the famous Gisbert hotel. In the year 1964, the palace was adapted to house the National Museum of Art of Bolivia, preserving its two courtyards and three levels. The main entrance is located on Socabaya Street.

Architecture

The entrance shows a stone façade carved and decorated with

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

motifs that spanned the three levels of the building. At the meeting of Socabaya and Comercio streets, the corner stone column and the stone balcony stand out.

Collections

Colonial and republican art

Some of the key painting in the collection include the following: * Virgin of Fuencisla, 1723 * Virgin of the Hill, 1720 * Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity and the Saints, 18th century * Child Jesus with symbols of the Passion, Gregorio Gamarra * Coronation of the Virgin, Gaspar Miguel de Berrío.

Contemporary art

The museum also has Bolivian, Latin American and international contemporary art in its collections such as those of Spanish artist Javier de Villota.

Selected works

File:Anónimo - Virgen de Pomata.jpg, Anonymous. Virgin of Pomata, 1680 File:Gaspar Miguel de Berrío - Coronación de la Virgen.jpg, Gaspar Miguel de Berrío. Coronation of the Virgin, 18th century. File:Anónimo - Coronación de la Virgen por la Trinidad y santos, s. XVIII.jpg, Anonymous. Virgin crowned by the Trinity and saints, 18th century. File:Anónimo - San Miguel Arcángel, 1708.jpg, Anonymous. Saint Michael the Archangel, 1708. File:Anónimo - La Virgen del Cerro, 1720.jpg, Anonymous. Virgin of the Cerro of

Potosí Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal . For centuries, it was the location o ...

, 1720. File:Leonardo Flores - Adoración de los pastores.jpg, Leonardo Flores. Adoration of the shepherds, 17th century. File:Anónimo - Ángel Virtud, Baraquiel, s. XVII.jpg, Anônimo. ''Anjo-Virtude, Baraquiel'', século XVII. File:Anónimo - Retrato de Felipe V convertido en Santiago.jpg, Anonymous. Portrait of Philip V as Santiago, 18th century.

References

{{Authority control Museums in La Paz