Voces del Prado

The Key: Observation of the Work and Teamwork

María Teresa Dávila Álvarez, Restorer, 1982-2013

Whenever you start a work you have to familiarise yourself with it over an extended period of time. You, on your own, just you and the work. You look at it for a long time, you observe it. One day you see it one way and, the next, you see it another. You obtain information regarding the painting’s physical history and you acquire the photographic documentation you are going to need. After all that, even though you have started the restoration work, you still follow the same process: observing and thinking about what you are going to need, what you don’t need, what you’re going to ask for, what you’re not going to ask for, who you’re going to ask. Because you have to work as a team with all the resources and museums throughout the world and you have to be fluid and flexible.