PICASSO. CHALLENGING THE PAST

From his earliest years Pablo Picasso was a passionate student of the European painting tradition. He was naturally drawn to the Spa nish masters Velázquez and Goya, but such figures as Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet, and Cézanne were also important artistic h eroes. Picasso repeatedly pitted himself against these masters, taking up their signature themes, techniques, and artistic concerns in audacious paintings of his own. Sometimes his quotations were direct, other times highly allusive.