Voces del Prado

Every Picture Has Its Way of Calling to You

Juan Manuel Gómez Agredano, Service Technician for Electricity and Air Conditioning (Electrician), 1972-What's on

Velázquez, Murillo …, every picture has something, a way of calling to you. You look up one day and, depending on the work, whether it’s a Velázquez or not, it appeals to you. In Hall 12, the cavalry paintings by Velázquez are amazing, especially when you’ve seen the studies on how they were made, how they have been repainted, how the work was made … that’s really appealing. I recall that when I started to work in the halls, they posted me with the Still-Lifes by Luis Egidio Meléndez, which were located in the corridor of Hall 31. I remember that every time I see one of the still-lifes by Meléndez, and I stop and look at them and recall the number of times I walked round these rooms when I was a hall supervisor. And the number of times I’ve seen that fruit, that insect … it’s something that’s stayed with me permanently, because that was the first hall I was posted in.