Voces del Prado

Different Directors: aristocrats, artists, art historians

Francisco Calvo Serraller, Museum Director, 1993-1994

The Museum has witnessed different directors over two centuries. In the beginning, the king, Ferdinand VII, was the owner of the collection, so he appointed the directors, who were aristocrats. Later on, when the Museum was nationalized, as it were, the owner became the State and the general policy until recent times was to appoint artists as its directors. Up until the Civil War, apart from being headed by artists, the Museum selected new pieces for its collections from amongst the contemporary works of the time: the works that were successful at national fine arts exhibitions. This practice was phased out at the end of the 19th century, because the creation of the Modern Art Museum provided an alternative venue for these works.
When artists headed the Museum, it was a lively institution. New works arrived constantly, just as they had done so in the Royal Collection. When the figure of art historian was created in the Museum’s management structure, it was impossible for me not to have a direct link with them, either because I’d been their student or we’d been colleagues together or because I’d been the Director’s teacher. For example, I taught Fernando Checa and Miguel Zugaza. Their predecessors included practically all of my lecturers. Diego Angulo Íñiguez was the one who shaped the specialized field known as the History of Art. He was my lecturer and I was amongst his first graduates. Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, who was his favorite student, also taught me at university. Javier de Salas, who directed my graduate dissertation was also a university lecturer. Pita Andrade did not teach me, but he was a faculty colleague of mine as a Professor when I was a Senior Lecturer at the Universidad Complutense. The universal tendency today is to appoint art specialists in management positions, or experts in marketing or in the financial promotion of the institution. In reality, the Director has to be both things at once.