The aim of this lecture is to reflect on how the “other”, whether Muslim or Jewish, was represented during the Middle Ages and the dawn of the modern era in the Iberian Peninsula, through a selection of works from the collections of the Museo Nacional del Prado. Issues such as “race,” “ethnicity,” and “cultural hybridity” will be brought into discussion, serving as a starting point for challenging the stereotypes that have been constructed over the years. We will focus on those small details that reveal changing, multi-ethnic societies rich in nuance, so beautifully and abundantly depicted by painters of the period.

Attention will also be paid to the “hidden line,” that is, to those drawings no longer visible, lying beneath the pictorial layer, but which can now be uncovered thanks to technical analyses carried out by the Museum, such as X-radiography and infrared reflectography. It will be possible to observe how some artists introduced changes into their paintings that are closely linked to the evolving—far from static—perception of this “other,” as well as to the policies of religious integration and assimilation pursued in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The study of how clothing, material culture, and skin colour were represented will help us to understand these particularly complex years in our history.

This lecture forms part of the series Revisiting Gothic Painting at the Prado.

Lecture delivered by Borja Franco (UNED – National University of Distance Education) on 21 May 2022 at the Museo Nacional del Prado.