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Miguel Falomir at the Prado Museum, in an archive image. Isabel B. Permuy
El Greco, Mengs and Veronese: The Prado's Major Exhibitions for 2025

El Greco, Mengs and Veronese: The Prado's Major Exhibitions for 2025

The gallery unveils its temporary exhibitions for the current year, dedicating a showcase to the work of contemporary artist Juan Muñoz

Antonio Paniagua

Madrid

Jueves, 16 de enero 2025, 14:50

El Greco, Veronese, and Anton Rafael Mengs will be the main attractions at the Prado Museum in 2025. These three masters will each have their own monographic exhibitions this year, following a 2024 that focused on 19th-century history and the relationship between painting and polychrome sculpture. Beyond this trio of geniuses, the Prado continues its commitment to highlighting female artists, exploring American cultural expressions, and promoting contemporary art.

"I remind you that the Prado is one of the great names in Western art. We are an international public museum and we support initiatives that we consider important, beyond strictly personal preferences," stated the institution's director, Miguel Falomir, on Thursday.

Two other major exhibitions will complete this year's highlights. One is the exhibition 'So Far, So Close. Guadalupe of Mexico in Spain', which will showcase the influence and presence of the Virgin of Guadalupe's iconography in the art of both sides of the Atlantic, an initiative that continues the American perspective started in 2021 with 'Return Journey'.

The second exhibition, curated by Vicente Todolí, explores the sculpture of Juan Muñoz (Madrid, 1953 - Ibiza, 2001), whose work is characterized by enigma, paradox, theatricality, irony, and bewilderment. The reason for Muñoz's presence at the Prado is that the innovative artist found creative inspiration in Velázquez and Goya.

The El Greco exhibition will reunite, for the first time since their dispersion in 1830, most of the works El Greco painted between 1577 and 1579 for the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. This commission, the most significant for the painter at the time, included a large altarpiece structure for the main altar and two side altarpieces, whose canvases are currently scattered. Thanks to an agreement with the Art Institute of Chicago, the painting 'The Assumption of the Virgin' will return to the Spanish gallery after more than a century. Thus, the work returns to Spain after its departure to the United States over a century ago. "This exhibition could not happen without an absolutely exceptional loan like this," highlighted Falomir.

Embargo on Russia

However, the painting 'Saint Peter and Saint Paul', located in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, will not be present in the exhibition due to the existing embargo on Russian cultural assets, ordered by the European Union following the invasion of Ukraine, which has prevented the collection from being completed. Visitors will be able to view the works from February 18 to June 15 in the museum's Central Gallery, one of the few spaces capable of accommodating the enormous dimensions of 'The Assumption of the Virgin'.

The Paolo Veronese exhibition will be housed in rooms A and B of the Jerónimos Building from May 27 to June 21. The initiative culminates the process of studying and reevaluating the Prado Museum's collection of Venetian Renaissance paintings, following exhibitions such as 'The Bassanos in the Spanish Golden Age' (2001), 'Titian' (2003), 'Tintoretto' (2007), and 'Lorenzo Lotto. Portraits' (2018). About 120 works by the master from various European and American museums will illustrate Veronese's creative process, his notable ability as a workshop leader, and his cosmopolitan style.

From November 25, 2025, to March 1, 2026, art lovers will have the opportunity to delight in the paintings of Anton Raphael Mengs. The greatest painter of the 18th century and a symbol of Neoclassicism. The exhibition features 150 works by the brilliant painter born in Bohemia in 1728 and who died in Rome in 1779. It includes watercolors, pastels, drawings, oils, and the fresco 'Jupiter and Ganymede', one of the great forgeries in history. "Mengs was a man of very clear aesthetic ideas and had an absolutely fundamental influence. Thanks to him, the religious zeal of Charles III did not end the nudes in the Spanish royal collection," Falomir noted.

In addition to sculptures, medals, and manuscripts, the exhibition will offer a comprehensive view of Mengs, his models, and his influences, especially his relationship with great masters such as Raffaello Sanzio, Correggio, and Pompeo Batoni.

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