New York ? A Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, “Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting,” has been extended three weeks, until June 29.

The show, which had been scheduled to close June 8, is the first major exhibit to examine how 17th-century Spanish painting influenced 19th-century French artists to move away from Italian renaissance idealism to realism — eventually paving the way for modernism.

The show features nearly 240 works by such Spanish masters as Murillo, Ribera, Zurbaran and El Greco along with the French artists they inspired, including Delacroix, Degas, Renoir and Courbet.

The core of the exhibit is Manet and his fascination with Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez.

The museum said in a release Tuesday that more than 450,000 visitors have seen Manet/Velazquez exhibition since it opened March 4.

The show was organized by the Met and the Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Musee d’Orsay in Paris.