The Museo Nacional del Prado is launching a new initiative in the form of opening different galleries from 8.30 to 11.30 pm on the first Saturday of each month. In addition to increasing the Museum’s opening times by a further 3 hours a month up to August, this new programme will offer a unique and unprecedented experience. Furthermore, participants can make use of the digital applications specially designed for the Museum by Samsung, a Technological Collaborator of the Prado since 2013: Guide to the Prado, Pen Academy, History of the Museum, Transparent Art, and Rome in your Pocket.

The Central Gallery of the Villanueva Building is the focus of the first night-time opening. The Museum’s most celebrated space, it houses what could be considered the greatest of any display of European painting, from Titian and Velázquez to Rubens and Goya. Points of particular interest for an appreciation of the installation in this area include two interesting juxtapositions: Titian’s Adam and Eve and the version of the work by Rubens; and two remarkable depictions of Venus and Adonis, one by Paulo Veronese of 1580 and the other by Annibale Carracci executed barely ten years later during the artist’s most “Venetian” phase. Finally, one of the aspects of this space that most impresses visitors is the intersection of different viewpoints in the central section of the Gallery, including a view of three of the most important portraits in the history of Western painting: Charles V at the Battle of Mühlberg by Titian, Las Meninas by Velázquez and The Family of Charles IV by Goya.

Radio 3 will be contributing to this first night-time opening with the live broadcast of a special programme on the Prado.