The exhibition that the Prado has decided to take a tribute on the occasion of its bicentenary offers a journey through the parallel stories of the museum and of Spain, that, after the visit is unclear, they become the same thing. It also celebrates the enormous power of influence of his collection in modern painters (Picasso, Fortuny and Antonio Saura) and others (Manet, Sargent, or Pollock). And they have all been invited to the party to blow out the candles.

The proposal is both a didactic lesson of art history as a vindication of that scientific discipline. Acts professor the curator Javier Portús, Head of Department of Spanish Painting (until 1700), which has chopped two centuries in seven periods, the same that come out from the rooms of history with the partitions of so many other stellar moments. We speak, in the NINETEENTH century, the foundation of the museum open to the public; the disentailment of 1835 (which caused a flood of property artistic property of the Church that ended up in the old convent of the Trinity); the royal decree that made the owner of these treasures at the Prado in 1872, the fact that de facto what became the national gallery to force him to disperse most of the funds around the country; or the year 1898, whose echo sounds like a disaster but in the artistic studies in spain, he recalls with fondness the arrival of the age of majority. Already in the TWENTIETH century, alludes to the proclamation of the II Republic, the beginning of the Franco regime and the consolidation of democracy.

With A place of memory, the exhibition will be open Monday, day of the 199º birthday. Then, the presence of the Kings will mark the start of a long celebration that runs until the 19 of November of 2019, the exact date of the anniversary.

Your translation improvements (by Juan Alberto García de Cubas) is a journey that leads the visitor through a labyrinth of right angles in the one that goes bouncing off a masterpiece in another as the ball of a pinball game. After the inevitable reception of María Isabel of Braganza as founder of the Prado Museum (1829), Bernardo López Piquer, awaiting the Christ of Velázquez, the first donation received. This leads to the Immaculate conception of the Venerables, of Murillo, who bought the Louvre in 1835 by a fortunón and returned in 1941 to the Madrid thanks to an agreement State. And so on.

‘San Andrés’ (1631), by José de Ribera (in the center), inspired the two paintings of Mariano Fortuny. Carlos Rosillo, THE COUNTRY

This is not, however, a celebration of a major milestone of the collection. Left out of the selection of nearly 200 pieces (38 of them, are borrowed), the jewelry, the property of the Kings, who were there from the beginning and formed and form the hard core of the museum. For this reason, two artists as El Greco and Goya have a special role. The first, because the most important paintings came to the Meadow with this already in place. And the second, because he died nine years after the foundation of the art gallery, and the history of their artistic recognition runs parallel to the consolidation of the museum.

The thesis of the exhibition is to highlight with videos and pictures: the juxtaposition of two famous images anonymous invoked the eloquence of a break in film. A photo of the pedagogical missions, travelling museum that carried reproductions of great works in remote locations, remains, separated by the fragment of a shell fallen close to the museum in 1936, the view Celtabet of the room IX is empty, such as remained after the eviction of their boxes to protect them from the war. The journey to Geneva is played on a map in parallel with the journey that led to Antonio Machado to the exile of Coilloure and death. The sale of tickets and catalogues of the exhibition swiss treasures of the Prado allowed, at least, the purchase of a greco exhibited in the next room.

it is Also happen the cabinets in which the documents —like the journal that was picked up by the news of the birth, a day in which “hermoseaba the capital of the Kingdom”— add to the mere context: thus, it shows The words and things (1966), assay of Foucault that “placed Las meninas in the centre of the debate of the contemporary culture”, according to Portús, or the book with three hours better leveraged in the history of the museums, of Eugenio D’ors. The thing comes away in the last room, in which he exposes the Patrimony Law of 1985, posters for temporary exhibitions, digital screens that invoke the concept of virtual museum expanded and the portraits of Francesco Jodice of visitors as a tribute to “the public, the true protagonist of this story.”

Shell collected in 1936 in the vicinity of the Prado. Carlos Rosillo THE COUNTRY More than a museum, a country of

has Also been printed in the high part of the walls texts of authors such as Manet or Ramón Gaya, who at the height of the franco regime takes comfort from the exile of the Prado seem to be “more of a homeland than a museum”. The master of impressionism commanded in 1865 a letter from Madrid to Fantin-Latour: “How I wish that you were here; what a joy to have experienced to see Velazquez, who alone is worth the entire trip. Is the painter of painters”. The seville is the icon most recurrent in the dialogues anachronisms that are established between artists, with permission of Picasso, to chat, in addition to Las meninas, with Antonello da Messina, or with The maja nude.

The Manet is not the only wonder of the Meadow resulted very soon in abroad. Several paintings are in Bahis charge of displaying the pre-eminent role that the Spanish school, held in the great european museums, once this had come out of the closet in the royal collection to “enter the canon”. Portús provides a network of scholars winks crusaders, which are detailed in a catalog that is itself an essay. An example: an oil painting of the Salon Carré of the Louvre Museum finds its echo a few rooms later in the space entitled ” Gifts and bequests, in which the boxes due to the kindness of strangers piled up in the walls like in the old times.

Miguel Falomir, director of the Prado, described yesterday’s show as “a reflection on the history of the institution,” “important, visually attractive, necessary and exciting”, before giving the word to Portús. The commissioner spoke for more than an hour without looking at any role until he came, in the end, the time to recapitulate the achievements that are intended to celebrate the bicentennial: “The state of health of the collection and its history are almost always in progress, their increasingly important place in the international arena and the strengthening of the awareness of heritage in Spain”.

Then, he thanked the effort of the extra hours of workers involved in the project. Less bad that you were not the only ones; Portús also referred to the works escogidas of the collection. “We have taken out of their usual routines,” he said, “and we put to work more for us to tell our own story.”

open Doors and “arts alive”

Monday will be the first of the four open days planned by the Museo del Prado next week (it will also be free entry to Friday, Saturday and Sunday). The celebration of the bicentennial will last a year and with an ambitious programme of exhibitions that includes the works of Velasquez, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Fra Angelico, Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana. In addition, next Saturday there will be fireworks, a projection of a videomapping on the facade and a show of “living arts” by La Fura dels Baus, in three consecutive passes.

Prado Museum 1819-2019
A place of memory

November 19, 2018 march 10, 2019

Times

Monday to Saturday from 10.00 to 20.00 h
Sundays and holidays from 10.00 to 19.00 h


Inputs

General: 15 euros
Guests: 7,50 eur
Buy in www.museodelprado.es

Script and coordination

Francis Pasha


Design / Layout

Ernesto Perez


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