Touching the Prado. Museu de Lleida

This is the Museo del Prado’s first initiative for visually impaired visitors: an exhibition of six images in relief, representing different art styles and genres that reflect the depth and richness of the museum’s collections.

Religious painting, mythology, genre scenes, portraiture and still life are the genres that the Prado has, for the first time in its history, made available to blind or partially sighted visitors by creating tactile reproductions of great works like Noli me tangere by Correggio, Vulcan’s Forge by Velázquez, The Parasol by Goya, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop, The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest by El Greco and Still Life with Artichokes, Flowers and Glass Vessels by Van der Hamen, the last three at full scale. At the Museu de Lleida, these are joined by a reproduction of the Pía Almoina mural paintings, one of the Catalan museum’s most iconic works.

Developed in collaboration with visually impaired professionals, this project contains additional material such as panels and labels in Braille, audio guides that provide precise instructions on how to complete a tactile tour of the pieces on display, and blindfold-like opaque glasses so that sighted visitors can share in this sensory experience.

These artworks were reproduced in tactile relief with the Didú technique developed by Estudios Durero, using high-resolution photographs to create textures and volumes up to six millimetres deep.