The Museo Nacional del Prado’s thematic routes are devised to encourage a new perspective on the collection. With this aim in mind the Prado has benefited from the collaboration of professionals from outside the institution and the disciplines normally associated with it. The objective is thus to offer visitors a different but rigorous gaze on the collections that focuses on themes and subjects other than the habitual ones and which in this case once again offers the opportunity to place women centre stage. As in the two previous editions of the project, this one is presented in collaboration with the Instituto de las Mujeres, with the aim of not only highlighting female narratives in the history of art but also of promoting research into the Prado’s collections from a gender viewpoint.

This is the case with the third edition of The Female Perspective, an important thematic route devised under the academic direction of Professor Noelia García Pérez. Through 45 works—five of them previously in storage, two on deposit with the University of Zaragoza and the Spanish embassy in London, and one by Murillo that is being exhibited for the first time after its recent identification at the Musée de Pau in France—visitors are invited to discover new stories centred on one of the principal artistic promoters of 18th-century Europe: Queen Isabella Farnese, the female artistic patron who most significantly contributed to the formation of the collections of the Museo del Prado.

From the year of her arrival in Spain in 1714 on the occasion of her marriage to Philip V until her death in 1766, and strongly influenced by her family heritage, Isabella Farnese exercised active and sustained artistic patronage for more than half a century, using her own resources through what was known as the queen's pocket, which allowed her considerable autonomy in her artistic choices. Making use of an extremely extensive network of artists, aristocrats and diplomats acting as agents and intermediaries, she amassed nearly a thousand paintings that reflect her marked preference for the Flemish and Italian schools, as well as for the work of Murillo, her favourite artist along with Teniers and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Her artistic patronage also extended to the field of sculpture, with the acquisition of a significant part of Queen Christina of Sweden's collection. Guided by a cultivated eye and her own discerning judgment, Isabella’s patronage left a decisive mark on the formation of the royal collections

The Museum houses nearly 500 works from Isabella Farnese’s collection, including paintings, drawings and sculptures, more than a hundred of which are on permanent display. Her presence is so all-pervasive that almost half of the Prado's galleries include works that once belonged to the queen and which now form an essential nucleus of its collections. By simply walking through the galleries it is easy to spot the fleur-de-lys, a mark used to distinguish Isabella’s works from those belonging to Philip V and one that is present on some of the most emblematic pieces in the Prado’s collections.

Isabella Farnese amassed nearly a thousand paintings. More than a third of that group—358 works—are now in the Museo del Prado, among them masterpieces by Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, Teniers, Correggio, Rubens, Luca Giordano, Reni, Guercino, Veronese, Tintoretto, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Van Dyck, Pieter Bruegel the Younger, Clara Peeters, Parmigianino and Watteau, among others.

Particularly evident within this extensive collection of paintings is the queen’s love of the work of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, whose presence in the Royal Collection was entirely due to her decisive impetus. As a result, the paintings by Murillo acquired by Isabella Farnese now constitute the largest and most significant group of works by the artist housed in the Museo del Prado.

In addition to her remarkable collection of paintings, Isabella played a decisive role in the field of classical sculpture, and among the most significant initiatives of her artistic patronage was the acquisition of one of the most coveted collections of antique sculpture of the time, assembled decades earlier by Queen Christina of Sweden. The transaction eloquently defines Isabella’s model of patronage. Although it was a project shared with Philip V, it was the queen who decided on and undertook the purchase, personally selected the pieces and reserved the most important ones for herself, including The San Ildefonso Group, the Diadumenus, Faun with a Kid and Satyr at rest. As with her paintings, aside from the large number of works what distinguishes this collection is its exceptional quality, explaining the prominent place it occupies in the Museum's permanent collection.

Although originally acquired for display at the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, a carefully chosen selection of these sculptures entered the Museum in 1829, the year the institution was given the name of Real Museo de Pintura y Escultura [Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture]. Thanks to the patronage of two exceptional women—Christina of Sweden and Isabella Farnese—these works now constitute the most important group within the Museum’s sculpture collection.

The Museo Nacional del Prado's firm commitment to highlighting the role of women in art and emphasising the contributions of these patrons and promoters has taken shape in a thematic route accompanied by a book focused on its protagonists, and an audiovisual piece co-produced with CaixaForum . In addition, there is an extensive and wide-ranging programme of associated activities, notably including the third edition of the symposium “Female Protagonists in the Collections of the Museo del Prado”; a lecture series taking place both inside and outside the Museum through the extended “Female Perspective” programme”; a new storytelling; guided tours led by the route’s curator; the creation of digital resources such as infographics and guides for families; a course for teachers; concerts; and a new editathon in collaboration with Wikimedia Spain.

With this new edition of The Female Perspective the Museo del Prado in collaboration with the Instituto de las Mujeres continues to advance in the reinterpretation of its collections in relation to gender, consolidating a project in which past and present converge to construct a more egalitarian future, generating new narratives that highlight the achievements of women in art; stories that reflect the diversity of the experiences, perspectives and voices of which history is made.