Voces del Prado

Get to know things and you'll love them

Carmen Garrido Pérez, Head of the Technical Office, 1982-2012

You go into the room dedicated to Hieronymus Bosch and you could die. You go into the primitive painters and you get the same feeling. But of course, you will like some paintings more than others, schools of painting that we do not have, painters who do not fit within the rules prevailing in their day and age. You study Rubens and are overtaken by the fantastic painter he was. Just as in anything in life, they are different even though they may seem to be the same. You don't like all cars the same although they can all take you places. Among our painters I love all of them: Goya, Velázquez, El Greco… Get to know things and you will love them. There's so much truth in that. For instance when I was studying at the university, all of a sudden those 20th century movements, the Russians, Rothko and so many others… I was very uncultivated. I had been to an exhibition or two but I lacked knowledge. When I studied them, I was fully captivated. When you get to know things you're trapped.