The history of Madrid, its people and its landscapes has been described over the years in hundreds of books and, as in the letters, its history has been shaped with brushstrokes in numerous works of art that can be seen today on the walls of museums across the country. However, at least 300 images that reflect what Madrid was , from the capital to its surroundings, remain hidden in places protected and safe from dust. It is the hidden treasures of the Prado Museum , the institution par excellence that has guarded the history of Spain for 200 years, which it commemorates precisely this coming Tuesday.
In its warehouses, guarded and restricted passage, the art gallery stores more than fifty canvases signed by about twenty authors and dated between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries that have the capital as the protagonist, as well as more than 200 watercolors, drawings, prints and photographs . THE WORLD has had access to one of these places, only suitable for a privileged few, which together house 2,500 works from the museum's collection.
Popular prints of other times or classic landscapes that invite to look for similarities with those of today are in this hidden Madrid of El Prado. Under lock and key are Luca Giordano's painting, which included the visit of Felipe II to the works of the Monastery of El Escorial; Juan Bautista de Martínez del Mazo, who painted a tabladillo hunt in Aranjuez; that of Manuel Rodríguez de Guzmán, who captured the washers working in the Manzanares River ; or that of Manuel García Hispaleto, who left for history the extinct house of Tócame Roque on Barquillo street. But in addition, among other authors and works, in these places are the canvases of Carlos de Haes, Antonio Pérez Rubio and Juan Espina and Capo, who described in recognizable prints, although very different at present, the Casa de Campo, the Park of the Retiro, the Sierra de Guadarrama or El Pardo .
Logic suggests that the lack of space is the reason why these works have been relegated. In the rooms of the historic museum, only 1,800 works of the more than 38,000 pieces that the collection adds up. But meters are not everything. « The concept of the museum of the 21st century is not to expose everything . The idea, beyond space, is to make an interesting selection for the visitor, to tell a story, and to be educational and didactic ». This is explained by the Museum's conservation coordinator, Karina Marotta, who argues that the criteria on which they are based to exhibit them are the quality of the works and that the artists and the theme are relevant.
This expert tells us that the saved works, which are reviewed every three months, are treated "with care" and that the conditions in which they remain in the warehouses are optimal for their conservation. At a constant temperature, with relative humidity, they live protected in closets. In the case of oils, hung "in their natural posture" on grid structures (combs) that, when moving, avoid any vibration. And in the one of the other works, extended in drawers, framed in paspartú and inside folders that stop its deterioration.
Security is no less strict: only eight people are authorized to handle the works, nobody can enter the warehouses alone and there is always a record of who is accessing and at what time.
But there are thousands of paintings saved "does not mean that they are there forever or that they forget," says Marotta. Much of the paintings in his collection that speak of the capital have been rescued from oblivion in several temporary exhibitions in recent years - such as Madrid Pintado (1992-1993), Madrid and the Sierra de Guadarrama (1998) or Carlos de Haes and the Prado Museum (2002-2003) - and some of them have been seen in other cities and have even left our borders.
In addition, the works of the warehouse "are studied more because they are more unknown." And, sometimes, when there are gaps in the walls of the museum by transfer of works to other institutions or by restoration, those canvases come out of their darkness. "There are daily room changes," says the Conservation coordinator.
The case of drawings and prints is very different, since their preservation prevents them from being continuously exposed. "The light is lethal for these works, fragile as skin," says the expert, who says that the exhibition conditions are very strict , for two or three months at most and always under a very dim light.
The scattered meadow
And from the hidden Madrid of the Prado, to the Madrid of the Prado that cannot be seen in the Prado. Another half of Madrid's paintings that belong to the museum's collection are found as a deposit in dozens of institutions spread across the Spanish territory. It is the so-called scattered meadow.
The Museum of History of Madrid houses most of these works, although within the capital there are also large paintings ceded and exhibited in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, in the Royal Site of El Pardo or in the Museum of Romanticism . And in the rest of the country, they can be seen in museums and institutions in San Sebastián, Valencia, Lleida, Malaga, Zamora, La Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Zaragoza, Tenerife, Granada and León.
From Goya to Beruete: what you can see
But it would be unfair to say that all Prado's work on Madrid is hidden or elsewhere. The most important works and the most recognized authors hang from its historic walls. At least 30 paintings are in its path.
The prairie of San Isidro , by Francisco de Goya , is undoubtedly the most emblematic of the dozen canvases that the author painted with Madrid as the protagonist, because in most of his work he used the city "as a backdrop where the scenes happened that he wanted to represent ", as in the clear case of Los firings of 1808, according to the Head of Didactic Content of the Prado Museum, Fernando Pérez Suescun.
In his cards for the Tapestry Factory, Goya portrayed the boys having fun in Dance on the banks of the Manzanares , The Blind Hen or La Merienda ; to the taverns and the tumult that once existed in the Sales area in La quarry in the New Sale ; to the street stalls in the markets in El cacharrero ; ao the dome of San Francisco El Grande and the Tirso de Molina area at Feria de Madrid .
And Velázquez , although in a more subtle but more precise way than Goya, also painted Madrid. In the equestrian or hunter portraits that hang from the Prado you can see the peaks of the Sierra de Guadarrama or the landscapes of the Pardo . And in El buffón called Don Juan de Austria you can see, in the background, a representation of the naval battles that took place in the Retiro pond in the 17th century.
The work of landscape architect Aureliano de Beruete is also very present in the museum. "As founder of the Free Institution of Education, he proposed going out to the countryside, knowing the environment and taking excursions to the Guadarrama", and that was reflected in his paintings, explains Peréz Suescun. Although throughout his career he also reflected with mastery the best view of Madrid , "valuing the architecture that the city had and highlighting the women who worked in the river" in works such as El Manzanares, adds this expert.
The Paseo de las Delicias , by Francisco de Bayeu y Subías, The Botanical Garden from the Paseo del Prado , by Luis Paret y Alcázar; Auto de Fe in the Plaza Mayor , by Francisco Rizi, and El milagro del Pozo , by Alonso Cano, which tells the story of San Isidro, complete the fundamental works of this tour of the museum, where Madrid, even if in minimum references, It is present in more works than we can imagine .
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