Salman Rushdie will talk with the Prado Museum about ‘The Stone of Madness’ and the Black Paintings

The writer Salman Rushdie will maintain a telematic dialogue with the painting conservator Alejandro Vergara from the National Prado Museum on April 9.

Both will engage in a conversation about the literature and painting of artists such as Goya, Velázquez and, mainly, Hieronymus Bosch and his work. ‘The stone of madness’. The talk can be seen live from the art gallery although Rushdie will be in New York.

Precisely, one of the five stories that are part of Rushdie’s latest publication, ‘The penultimate hour’ (Random House) is ‘Oklahoma’. This story includes references to works by Goya and Hieronymus Bosch, and ‘Las Meninas’, a consequence of a visit by the narrator to the Prado.

The last of these paintings, the writer explains in the book, leaves him speechless, due to its perfection – “there is nothing to add” -. Hieronymus Bosch’s painting ‘The stone of madness’ It takes him to the “madness” of Goya, to a conversation between both artists and to fix his fertile imagination on the Black Paintings.