Voces del Prado

Having a Ball: Miquel Barceló

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

I had a great time at the “Bosch” Exhibition, because we saw it together, just the two of us alone, Miquel Barceló and me. And we had a great time, saying things like: “Look! Look at how he does his brushstroke; he leaves the paint wet!” We had a real ball!
And after spending some time being with him and looking at him, I realised certain things, from the point of view of their material execution that I had never quite realised before. Bosch had worked with wet paint, and that is how he made a series of movements that can be seen in his brushstrokes; it’s quite evident and it sets Bosch’s works apart from others that aren’t by him. I recognised the hand, that movement, but I’d never perceived it quite as clearly as this, because I’d never considered the material execution: it was the result of working with wet paint. This experience was extremely gratifying for me, because I was convinced that I could see Bosch’s hand, and I could see his hand tremble; but it wasn’t his hand that trembled, but the paint when he worked the wet paint with his brush.