Voces del Prado

What the Prado gives us

Manuela Mena Marqués, Head of the Department of Conservation of 18th Century Painting and Goya, 1978-2019

Knowledge of art, and that isn’t something that may people have. That’s what the Prado give us in abundance, if you want to acquire it. If you don’t want to, then you get nothing. The Museum has given me the opportunity to look inside its paintings and understand why an artist has placed a brushstroke in one place or another. That’s what the Prado has given me. Art doesn’t give that to many people; you can achieve it through an institution such as the Museo del Prado. The state of preservation of the works at the Prado also has an impact, because there are other museums in which it’s better not to even set foot. That’s what the Prado has given me: the capacity to judge and know why an artist places a brushstroke in one place or another, or paints a hand like that instead of in another manner.