Two Hundred Years of the Prado Museum

To commemorate it, throughout this year, a special programming has been planned which hosts numerous exhibitions and activities related with the museum. A celebration where you can travel and reflect about its history but with an eye on the future. The Museo Nacional del Prado, opened its doors on November 19, 1819 welcoming 311 paintings of the Royal Collection, all of them belonging to Spanish authors.

The central objective of the Bicentennial is to celebrate the Museo Nacional del Prado as a gift given to Spain and explain how, as a result of social and political events, a private collection intended at first for the enjoyment of a few ended up becoming the main national cultural institution. Within the ambitious program of activities proposed for the Bicentennial, the commemorative exhibition should be highlighted of its anniversary. A chronological journey through the history of the museum with the evolution of the institution and how it itself has been a reflection of the historical becoming of Spain.

As part of the activities, in October the conference Museum, war and postwar, Protection of the heritage in the War conflicts took place where the 80th anniversary (1939-2019) of the rescue of the works from the Museo del Prado and the Spanish artistic heritage was commemorated. A basis for an international announcement in order to promote the research, the debate, and the contributions about the museum and the heritage in the event of a war conflict.

With the aim to expand the sources for knowing its history the initiative Voices of the Prado has been carried out. An oral history, where they are collecting the stories of different generations, from the 40’s until the present, with the experience of people who have devoted day to day to the institution. During its nothing more and nothing less than two centuries of life, outsiders and locals have walked the halls of the Prado in search of its star painting – Las Meninas, by Velázquez – , have invested hours and hours analyzing every detail of El jardín de las delicias, have received a history lesson in front of Los fusilamientos del tres de mayo or have spent glancing at the spooky picture of Saturno devorando a su hijo.

In addition to the permanent collection, a program full of temporary exhibitions and facilities provided to art lovers the opportunity to submerge in the universe of artists of the stature of Velázquez, Rembrandt, Goya, Fra Angelico, Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana and Pieter Brueghel the Elder. The Library of the Museo Nacional del Prado can boast of having under its domain the largest collection of drawing charts compiled until today. These instruments were essential for the learning such discipline, both in the workshops of the artists as in the Academies of Fine Arts.

On the occasion of its bicentennial, it will show all of these primers saved with suspicion and that served to dominate the technique of the pen during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which was its golden age.

THE PRADO THROUGH SPAIN:

During this year, the Prado wants to champion their condition of “national”, getting its artistic legacy to every corner of our geography. The public of all the autonomous communities will be able to enjoy some of the masterpieces of its collection thanks to loans in selected state or provincial museums (one for each community and autonomous city, with the exception of Madrid).

Twelve is the number of works that will travel through Spain for a period of approximately one month. Among the paintings selected we can find masterpieces by Titian, El Greco, Velázquez, Zurbarán, Murillo, Goya, and Sorolla.

EL PRADO IN THE STREETS:

El Prado also wants to be an open air museum, even temporarily. The streets of different Spanish cities will be dotted with photographic reproductions of real size of the paintings of the most emblematic paintings of the museum.

The exhibition, organized in four thematic blocks (Spanish Painting, Italian Painting, Flemish Painting, and Other Schools), also including several panels that narrate the history of the museum and its collections.