Voces del Prado

A national longing

José María Luzón Nogué, Museum Director, 1994-1996

One of the striking things at the Prado Museum was that you went in and there was no reception area. People went in, through any of the doors, and there was no entry hall. Whether it was the door of Murillo, Velázquez or Goya, you went in and were already in the exhibition halls. The Museum needs an entry area, a place to welcome visitors and distribute them, for instance one like the pyramid of the Louvre. Every museum has one and the Prado needs it too. The Villanueva building was not designed for that purpose but as a Natural Science Museum. It was something else.
Even in the 19th century museums were designed differently. It's interesting now that there is talk of the 200th anniversary of the Museum because for a few years I've been responsible for the Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In it we have a collection of over one thousand five hundred drawings. It's funny. The architects who took their examinations in 1818 were evaluated and we have the drawings for the assignment: “Design a Museum of Fine Arts for the capital”. At the time they thought it was something that Madrid needed. A few years later, since they had already occupied the Prado Museum, the assignment was: “Make a building for a Natural Science Museum for the capital”. In other words, in the drawings for buildings that were never erected you can see how in Spain they were thinking about a Museum they never had. It was something that was always in the longing, such as the Kensington or the British Museum, a museum like the one being built in Berlin at the time. In other words, what was being done in the big capital cities. The type of buildings that rose up in other countries, which were not erected here because of the lack of funds. What we have here is the gallery of the Natural Science Museum, adapted as a Royal Picture Gallery.
All the drawings of museums in the 19th century followed the same pattern. They were organized around courtyards, such as today in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Big buildings, big areas and courtyards, because the halls and galleries have plenty of lighting. The light comes from the courtyards. Spanish architects knew what they wanted, but there wasn't any money to do it.