Madrid, 30 September 2005. – The Director of the Prado Museum, Miguel Zugaza, today presented to the media the end result of the restoration of Caravaggio’s masterpiece, The Penitent Saint Jerome, from the Montserrat Abbey collection.

Ms. Elisa Mora, of the Prado Museum’s restoration team, has overseen the restoration of The Penitent Saint Jerome by request from the Montserrat Abbey. The intervention of the Prado Museum, which on occasion performs restorations for other institutions, has been arranged by the Focus-Abengoa Foundation in order to include this same painting in the exhibition entitled From Herrera to Velázquez: Early Naturalism in Seville, which is scheduled to open soon at the Foundation’s headquarters in Seville, the Hospital de los Venerables.

This exhibition, co-produced by the Museo de Bellas Artes of Bilbao, will include two other important works by the Italian painter: David, Victorious over Goliath, from the Prado Museum, and The Sacrifice of Isaac, loaned by the Barbara Piasecka Johnson Foundation in Princeton (USA).

Jointly curated by Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, Honorary Director of the Prado Museum, and Professor Benito Navarrete Prieto, From Herrera to Velázquez: Early Naturalism in Seville will open in Seville on 29 November, where it will remain open to the public until 28 February. The exhibition will later travel to the Museo de Bellas Artes of Bilbao, where it may be visited up until the end of May.