Critical Complicities

Organised jointly by the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico and the Museo Nacional del Prado, the route Calderón and Painting aims to invite the public to contemplate the Baroque painting of the permanent collection from the conceptual and aesthetic subtlety of Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681). 

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If Calderón’s theatre has had an enormous impact on later great artists, it is largely due to the importance that the author grants to reflection upon perception and communication. Although Calderón’s plays are sometimes dogmatic or propagandistic, there is always a critique of conventions and language. This critique subtly anticipates the profound changes that would shake the regimes that the author seems to defend.