Basically since we set up the Technical Office at the Prado Museum, the purpose in terms of technical documentation was to make a technical file of every painting, so that technical data could be consulted in the same way as historical data.
There are actually two very specific applications.
I have always viewed that documentation as a bridge between the history of art and restoration. There are two fields laid before us: one is checking the state of conservation of a given work to guide the restoration process, which is carried out at the atelier of the Prado Museum, and the other part has to do with what the data can provide to the history of art and the study of pictorial techniques. Those are the fields in which technical documentation is basically present. They are supplementary fields that use the same methods.
Head of the Office of Technical Documentation at the Museum, conservator with the Spanish Association of Museum Professionals. She has worked at the Escuela de Restauración of Madrid, as well as at the laboratory of the Instituto de Conservación y Restauración. She has participated in numerous research studies and publications.
Interview recorded on April 20, 2018