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I had a feeling of having completed my work. A big challenge I found when I arrived here was getting the Museum's Library and Documentary Services up and running. The Library was installed and operating at the Casón. Two important exhibitions had been held in my time: "Biblioteca Artis", in the year 2010, and then "The Library of El Greco", in 2014.
I felt that the fundamental things had been done, and the opportunity arose to work on something that was quite appealing, the Great Bibliographic Treasure of Spain, the section of incunabula and rare manuscripts of the National Library. A new challenge, which I accepted.
When I arrived at the Museum I remember a colleague (the director of the library of the University of Zaragoza) told me, ‘for you to arrive at the Museum is like being accepted in Valhalla. A librarian who has trained as an art historian, starting out at the Library of the Prado Museum. A dream for anyone’.
Now I am back at a section filled with works of art, but in the form of illustrated books, illuminated mediaeval manuscripts. In other words, I've always managed to meet the requirements of a librarian, without moving away from my interests and my research activities as an art historian.
The decision to leave the Museum was not an easy one. There were a few nights sleeping poorly and asking myself once and again whether I was doing what I should or putting my foot in it. No, it's not easy to leave the Museum, was what Miguel Zugaza said to me when I told him I was leaving to a post at the National Library. He summed it up, It's easier to find your way into the Prado Museum than the exit door. It's true.
I miss everything, the frequent walks around Villanueva, although I can always find a winter afternoon when the Museum is less busy and simply take my walk. One misses the pleasant atmosphere, relations with the staff are generally on good terms and you find many professionals, people I miss of course. On a personal level I miss my friends, and strictly in terms of the work I'm doing now, I miss having full control over a documentary unit. Here I oversaw everything, but in such a large place as the National Library, you find you're a small cog in a much larger machinery. Here I had control over the Library, the Archive and the Documentation Service. It was different. I've learned a lot at the National Library and I'm happy there. But there are many things I've left behind and miss here at the Prado.
He has worked at the Museum as Head of the Library, Documentation and Archives Area, subsequently moving to the Department of Manuscripts and Incunabula at the National Library of Spain as director.
Interview recorded on December 13, 2017
