Voces del Prado

From Álvarez de Sotomayor to Zugaza. The directors of the Prado

Juan Luna Fernández, Head of the Department of Conservation of 18th Century Painting, 1969-2016

The first, whom I didn’t know personally, was Álvarez de Sotomayor. He was director when I was a boy and I was taken to the Prado as a child. I sometimes saw him in the galleries and later I knew his family but obviously I didn’t know him personally as Álvarez de Sotomayor died in 1960. Then there was Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón, who was the director when I was a student. He was another director I didn’t know, I didn’t meet him personally. He was a very severe, very rigorous man, a member of three royal academies: the Royal Spanish Academy, the History and the Fine Arts Academies. The next director was my master, don Diego Angulo Íñiguez, who you could see was looking ahead in the things he did, the projects he organised and his interest in organising the lectures, for example. After that it was Xavier de Salas who got the job. He was a man of very good taste and I remember that he organised the exhibition “Mengs” [1980] with very special taste and I learned from him. Some of the ideas he introduced in the Mengs exhibition I used myself in the “Claude Lorrain” exhibition [1984]. After that it was Pita Andrade, a very cordial, pleasant man but he wasn’t here long, from 1978 to 1981. Then they appointed a director in a rather strange way. He was a priest, Father Federico Sopeña, who had a background in music but wasn’t the right person for the Prado. He was also here for a short time. He made the right decision to focus on altering the lecture hall, which was still in the project stage, in order to have a piano that was raised and lowered, as they thought they might organise major concerts, and he got other things right despite not knowing what the museum was about.
After Father Sopeña it was Alfonso Emilio Pérez Sánchez, who was the most suitable person to direct the Prado due to his knowledge. Alfonso Pérez Sánchez fell out with certain people in high places and said that if certain issues weren’t sorted out he would leave; and he had to go. Then Felipe Garín was appointed, who had problems because of the leaks. Leaks have been another tradition at the Prado.
Then they appointed Francisco Calvo Serraller, better known as Paco Calvo, and I’d rather not say anything about that individual. He was here for seven months. Then there was a director who knew a lot and let us get on with our work, which was José María Luzón Nogué who had been director of the Museo Arqueológico and director general of Fine Arts, in other words very involved in the field. Then there was an eminently difficult person, Checa Cremades. Then it was Miguel Zugaza and the current director, Miguel Falomir. So, adding them up, my life’s spanned twelve directors.