Voces del Prado

Discord between Sánchez Cantón and the Marquis of Lozoya

Matías Díaz Padrón, Technical Advisor and Head of the Department of Conservation of Flemish Painting and the Northern Schools up to 1700, 1970-2005

I first came to the Prado to take down notes at the library, of course it was for my University papers. My doctoral dissertation was on Flemish painting in the 17th century throughout Spain, and they made it easy for me to access the Prado. Since I was focusing on technical aspects, I was able to witness what was a memorable episode for me, a sort of discord, a difference of opinion between Sánchez Cantón and the Marquis of Lozoya [Juan de Contreras y López de Ayala] in respect of a Romanesque sculpture, a figure of Christ, regarding which there were doubts. Sánchez Cantón thought it was a forgery and the Marquis of Lozoya thought it was genuine, so the Qualification Board decided that I should see it. “Ask that boy to come here and tell us what he thinks about this sculpture”. I got close, I was very young, and I realized that the holes in the wood were false, supposed to be made by Anobiidae, but I checked them by putting in a cotton swab. It was sufficient for me to think that the wood was not eaten up, it was quite rigid, very abrupt, so I calmly said, "I think this is a forgery." I think he took that into consideration, and some months later don Diego said, "Why doesn't this boy come along to help me out?" I guess I was quite young, twenty-something, so he brought be into the Prado Museum to review some sources and documents to assist them. Especially many pictures that they had that were copies, there were many of those, some of them were poor quality, and that was more or less my first mission. Then I went on to researching the collection kept at the Prado Museum, and subsequently I went on to finish my doctoral dissertation on 17th century Flemish painting at the Prado.