Voces del Prado

20 Years and 6 Months (Minus 3 Days)

Pilar Silva Maroto, Head of the Department of Conservation of Flemish Painting and the Northern Schools up to 1700, 1997-2017

My name is Pilar Silva Maroto. I joined the Museum from the Faculty on secondment on 1st March 1997. Then I joined special services and I was able to stay on until I retired on 27th January 2017. Which is to say, I was there for 20 years and 6 months, minus 3 days.
I joined when Fernando Checa was Director. He also came from the Faculty of Geography and History at the Complutense University, from my own department in fact, History of Art II. And I was the one who practically convinced him that the newly created position that had come out at the Museum would be perfect for me. So I arrived and I took charge of the Collection of Spanish Paintings up until the Early Renaissance and the Flemish Paintings. But especially the Flemish Paintings of the Fifteenth Century and the Early-to-Mid-Sixteenth Century. Because part of the German Paintings was still managed by Matías Díaz Padrón, but I took charge of it until 1600 when Matías retired. Also for a short time, barely a year, I was responsible for all Spanish Paintings up until Goya, but excluding Goya. Because the person who was responsible for this was Trinidad de Antonio, who was also on secondment, and who returned to the Faculty. So it was up to me to handle the Velázquez Centenary in the year 1999, with all the loans and other tasks it entailed. This normally wouldn’t have been my responsibility at the Museum, and when the new curators arrived, Javier Portús and Leticia Ruiz, they took charge of this part of the collection.