Voces del Prado

From 1989 to 1994 copying The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych

Francisco Martín Ortiz, Administrative Technician (copies), 1966-2015

Mariko Umeoka Taki, a Japanese woman, she's also a good friend, spent nearly five years copying The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych by Bosch. She asked for special permission, because it was normally not copied. In those days she wrote to Manuela Mena, who was the deputy director, telling her it was her life dream, begging her to let her copy that painting. And she came from Japan for that sole purpose, living at the Hotel Palace for a year because it was just across the street from the Prado. At the beginning she didn't speak any Spanish, but learned it coming to the Prado. She spent five years working on her copy and the result was magnificent, though not the same as the original, the measurements must be similar but can never be the same. There has to be a three or four centimeter difference on each side, either longer or shorter than the original. She painted it that way, reducing it by four centimeters, then she framed it, added the corresponding hinges to be able to close it, and you know that The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych has a globe of the earth on the outside when it is closed, so she painted that too and she exhibited it at the Círculo de Bellas Artes.