Rembrandt082,Bathsheba at Her Bath,1654

The largest exhibition of Rembrandt van Rijn's work ever shown in Spain is about to open at Madrid's El Prado Museum.

The exhibition called "Rembrandt, History Painter" formally inaugurated Tuesday by Spain's King Juan Carlos I. The showings are set in the world renowned Prado National Museum in the heart of the Spanish capital.

The current exhibition features a collection of 35 paintings and five prints by the Dutch master. It's the first time an exhibition of this size has been assembled on the Iberian Peninsula.

Alejandro Vergara, Chief of Conservation of Flemish paintings and the Northern European Schools at El Prado Museum describes the collection as a novelty. The permanent collection at the museum contains only one Rembrandt. The museum rarely holds such large scale shows.

Alejandro Vergara from El Prado Museum, said, "Every museum has the ambition of making shows of the great artists. We like to make shows of artists that are less known but equally important. We don't have other than one Rembrandt and there is one other in Spain in the Thyssen Collection so in a way you could say this is not our territory and to stay away from it, and you know work on shows closer to our collection, and that's true and we do that. That's one way at looking at museum activity and one way looked at the Prado until recently. And another way and what we are dealing with is to also bring to our walls and our rooms what you don't usually see here."

According to the museum, Rembrandt van Rijn is considered as one of the greatest painters in the Western art tradition. He's also considered one of the most "personal" painters in the history of European art.

His paintings are said to be characterized by an aim to depict people's emotions in the most incisive and moving way possible.

"Rembrandt, History Painter" runs from October 15, 2008 to January 6, of next year.