Voces del Prado

Technology and Research

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

I’m a bit of a disaster with technology, because I use computers more as a kind of typewriter than anything else, but I am happy with the access they provide.
The first time I went to the National Library, when I began my degree back in 1965, I had to copy all of the articles by hand because there was no photocopier. Then the photocopier arrived and that had an enormous impact. And now it’s hard to believe what you can do. You can get hold of articles through JSTOR, through different media, from the Internet, which has transformed everything completely. When I was carrying out research on the painting on panel entitled The Agony in the Garden, I wouldn’t have been able to complete it if it hadn’t been for these new technologies. I accessed the web site of the National Library of France and was able to consult absolutely all of the manuscripts and publications dating from the nineteenth century. In contrast, when I began to work on my thesis back in the 1970’s, I had to actually go to the former National Library of France in order to consult the sales catalogues. Now you don’t have to; you can just sit down at your computer and consult all of this information and research what you need in a much more comprehensive manner.
Being able to access the Burlington Magazine and search for a particular year and such-and-such a page and print it, even in colour … well that’s just unbelievable!