The renowned Prado Museum located in Central Madrid at Calle Ruiz de Alarcón, near the Retiro Park,, the historic Paseo del Prado, the Fountain of Neptune, and major avenues of the Spanish capital, part of the “Art Triangle” with the museums Reina Sofia and Thyssen - Bornemisza, hosted in a neoclassical building with modern expansion, containing renowned masterpieces displayed in multiple floors dedicated to different art eras, is launching a new exhibition format titled “A work, A story,” focusing on deep, narrative explorations of its collection.
This initiative is part of a broader 2026 programming strategy highlighting recent acquisition and thematic studies, aiming at enhancing the interpretation of its, and loaned artworks.
The tour of the Prado Museum is marked by the visual impact of a large - format work, Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, a complex Baroque masterpiece executed in 1656 featuring a candide scene in the Madrid palace of Philip IV, anchored by the Infanta Margaret Theresa, stands at the centre, surrounded by her meninas (maids of honour) and prominently features the artist himself at a large canvas, which today can be surpassed.
With this in mind the museum inaugurates the exhibition format “A Work, a Story”, with Las Meninas, measuring 320 cm high and by 218 cm wide flanked by the Year of Hunger in Madrid by José Aparicio e Inglada measuring 315 x 437 cm.
The Year of Hunger in Madrid is a work that is hardly known to the general public. Painted around 1818 by José Aparicio e Inglada, a Spanish painter from Alicante associated to the neoclassical style, an artist characterized by his use of realism and attention to detail, actively worked in the Spanish capital during the Reign of King Ferdinand VII.
The painting is a significant, yet historically turbulent painting depicting the severe famine in Madrid during the Napoleonic occupation (1811 – 1812).
The work serves as an allegory for the dramatic situation of starvation endured by Madrid residents, showcasing emaciated citizens, including a woman holding a baby while a man rushes towards soldiers. Similar to Goya’s works it addresses the extreme food shortages, referred to as the “faminede los amorta” (famine of the grasspea).
This masterpiece once captured all eyes in the Prado Museum, where it came to eclipse the figures of Francisco de Goya and José de Madrazo during the Reign of Ferdinand VII, King od Spain in the early 19th century.
Hailed as great artistic milestone of its time, multiplied in prints, songs, and poems, this history painting also served as a political artiffact.
The reconstruction of its original location in the Prado Museum in 1819, which became one of the main icons, reveals the ideological toll imposed by the absolutism off King Ferdinand VII, even above Las Meninas at the time.
Key Features of this program include:
• “A work, a Story”New Exhibition Format: This new format is designed to provide comprehensive, curated narratives around specific pieces.
• Narrative Focus: Detailed exploration of the history, context, and creative process behind a single, spotlighted work.
• Unique Works: Showcasing pieces like José Aparicio’s “The Year of Hunger in Madrid”.
• Contextual Understanding: Providing deep insight into the story of Aparicio’s work, rather than just a traditional stylistic viewing.
Director of the Prado Museum, Miguel Falomir, commented that the aim is to invite the viewer to contemplate a work that, beyond its aesthetic merits, helps us to reflect on aspects of the history of art that often go unnoticed.
According to the source, the exhibition analyses, until September 13, 2026 in room 66 of the Villanueva building, the rise and fall of a national glory that went from being the most powerful visual metaphor of ninenteenth - century Spain to becoming a mere local anecdote.
Link
https://infoturlatam.com/museo-del-prado-de-madrid-lanza-gran-formato-expositivo/
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