Voces del Prado

The 19th-century collection with Guernica. Looking at what you could

Ana Gutiérrez Márquez, Senior Technician of Museums (Conservation of 19th Century Painting), 1975-2018

In order to see the display of the 19th-century collection you entered the Casón via the Philip IV entrance, but when you came in there were two rooms and the rest was occupied by the central room where Guernica was. You entered via those rooms then went up to the top floor. On the top floor you looked at what you could, as the large paintings obviously couldn’t be hung there because the rooms were very limited by the height of the walls. Nonetheless, the most famous ones were there, like Queen Isabella the Catholic dictating her Will by Rosales. In those days it had a Neo-gothic frame which came with it from the Museo de Arte Moderno; a frame that terminated with pinnacles. In order for it to fit into the galleries they had to be cut off and it was displayed without them. Later, in the first installation of the collection in the Villanueva Building the pinnacles were restored and kept. Although these days it’s not the frame it has in the Museum.