The Prado Museum conceives a new women’s itinerary

Madrid. In the extensive collection of the Prado Museum there is a historiography that until now had not been addressed in depth: the feminine vision in the works, both from the point of view of the artists and from that of the figure of women in art and its importance in collecting. Hence, for the second time, after the proposal two years ago, the Madrid art gallery created a new itinerary in femininein which, through a series of pieces, details are explained about the route of some works, in which the intervention of a woman was crucial for their conservation.

One of the most successful initiatives at the Prado Museum is the Prado in femininein which, in addition to reviewing the collection to remove from the deposits important paintings made by female artists, it is also intended to explain the history of the Prado collection, one of the most important in the world.

Now, in this second itinerary, planned from that vision in feminine, which can be visited from today until next September 8, focuses above all on the collecting of different women from the European royal houses, whose contribution was decisive for the enlargement of the old royal collection and, consequently, of the current Museum. A chronological criterion is followed, the first itinerary focused on those women whose actions coincided with the years between the birth of Isabel la Católica and the death of Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566-1633).

A peculiarity of this second edition is that it moves forward to the 17th century to focus on new artistic promoters, among them figures such as Isabel de Borbón and Mariana de Neoburgo (1664-1740). Queen Christina of Sweden stands out for her exceptionality, to whom the Spanish art gallery owes the most valuable set of classical sculpture in the National Prado Museum, but also pictorial works as fundamental and representative of its collections as the panels of Adam and Eve by Dürer. .

Protagonists in their own right

This type of reading of the collection and history of art from the point of view female It has also been carried out in other museums, such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, with its itinerary Women of the Rijksmuseumand the National Portrait Gallery in London, which created the proposal Reframing narrativeswhich go along the same lines of telling the story more broadly and showing it in a more inclusive sense, creating new stories in which women are protagonists in their own right.

In addition to the pieces themselves, which are identified in a specific brochure, the Prado Museum also exhibits four audiovisuals of around half an hour each, in which, as a documentary, figures such as Cristina of Sweden, Isabella of Bourbon, Mariana of Austria and Mariana of Neoburgo.

Likewise, there will be a program of complementary activities, including visits with the tour curator, creation of digital content resources, guides for families, a training course for teachers, a film series, a dance work or a new Editatona.

It is worth highlighting the creation of an interactive relational map on the website (www.museodelprado.es), where the protagonists of the female itinerary are connected with their contemporary characters and the type of link that existed between them is indicated, as well as the explanation of the relationships of the protagonists with the works selected for the exhibition itinerary and the milestones in which they were involved, presented chronologically.