The Prado Museum’s bicentennial has offered the opportunity to acknowledge and highlight the institution’s national dimension through projects such as “The Prado in the Streets”.

Sponsored by the Fundación Iberdrola España, this is an educational exhibition comprising fifty life-size photographic reproductions of the Prado’s most iconic paintings, which can be visited until 30 June in the Plaza del Congreso Eucarístico.

This project will then continue its journey by visiting Éibar, Cartagena, Palencia, Jerez de la Frontera, Zamora, Albacete and Mérida.

Madrid, 3 June 2019

The aim of this project, which is entitled The Prado Museum in the Streets and sponsored by the Fundación Iberdrola España, is to communicate a greater understanding of the Museum’s collections and the cultural identity of its historical heritage to a wider audience. It will encourage educational programmes and cultural outreach activities within the framework of the institution’s Bicentenary commemoration programme. It will also try to virtually recreate the experience of visiting the Museum by allowing visitors to contemplate the paintings in their actual dimensions, giving them an experience similar to that of being in front of the authentic works of art.

It will also try to virtually recreate the experience of visiting the Museum by allowing visitors to contemplate the paintings in their actual dimensions, giving them an experience similar to that of being in front of the authentic works of art.

The exhibition was inaugurated this morning by Carlos González Serna, Mayor of Elche; Marina Chinchilla, Deputy Director of Administration of the Prado Museum; Fernando García, President of Fundación Iberdrola España; and Fernando Pérez Suescun, curator of the exhibition. Until 30 June, it will provide the people of Elche with the opportunity to see 50 of the most important works in the Madrid collection through life-size photographic reproductions. These will be adjusted to fit the dimensions of the exhibition panels (184 x 122 cm) located in the Plaza del Congreso Eucarístico, a square used by around 18,000 people on a daily basis that is located in the historic centre of the city.

This large open-air exhibition, which is curated by Fernando Pérez Suescun, Head of Didactic Content at the Prado Museum, will allow the visiting public to take a tour of the different artistic schools covered by the Prado’s permanent collection and learn about the history of Spain, Europe and Western art in general at the hands of the great masters. The Spanish, Italian, Flemish, French, German and Dutch schools will be present through examples dating from the 12th to the first years of the 20th century.

The show also has bilingual information panels on each of the works and other bilingual panels with information on the history of the Museum and its collections.

The reproductions are shown at 1:1 scale, however, due to the dimensions of the exhibition stands, for some of the larger paintings only the superb detail of a part of the work will be on display, although the entire painting will be shown in the explanatory panel.

A further extension of the Prado’s educational and informative activities

This project will provide a new way for the public to get to know the Prado collections which can also be seen by visiting the Museum website www.museodelprado.es. The website has over 16,000 high-quality images and worksheets covering the collection, videos explaining the works, exhibitions and restorations, a multitude of interactive educational resources as well as access to the Digital Archive and the Online Encyclopaedia. This digital content is augmented by content on the educational platforms iTunesU and MiríadaX; active accounts on the main social media such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube; as well as innovative apps such as Second Canvas Museo del Prado.

Fundación Iberdrola España is a Protector member of the Prado Museum

Fundación Iberdrola España has been collaborating with the Prado Museum since 2010 by supporting the conservation and restoration programmes undertaken by the art gallery, as well as through 4 annual scholarships for young restorers. This year, the Iberdrola Foundation also wished to join the Extraordinary Programme to commemorate the museum’s Bicentennial and, in particular, to support this travelling exhibition to which it is contributing around 200,000 euros.

One of the Foundation’s main areas of activity is in cultural development, focused on the care and maintenance of cultural and artistic treasures.