MADRID: This month marks the opening of a new Madrid museum jam-packed with hundreds of artifacts acquired by Spanish monarchs over the past five centuries.
The Royal Collections Gallery, which debuts on June 29, is right across from the Royal Palace and will display artwork, tapestries, furniture, and ornately decorated carriages.
The majority of the 650 pieces that will be on show were either hidden away in remote areas of Spain’s historical monuments or weren’t previously available to the general public.
The museum’s director, Leticia Ruiz Gomez, said: “There are works that come from monasteries or palaces, and here we offer another perspective on them. A painting by Diego Velazquez, one of Spain’s most well-known historical painters, depicting a horse rearing up without a rider is among the highlights.
Ruiz Gomez said “White Horse” was last showcased in 2015 during a temporary exhibition to the people in Paris. It sat in the corner of a chamber at the Royal Palace for the remainder of the period.”
A huge tapestry from the 16th century that Spain’s Queen Isabella formerly owned lies nearby; the cultural ministry paid one million euros ($1.1 million) for it in February. The first printing of “Don Quixote,” one of the finest novels in history by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, is another noteworthy object.
The collection also includes works by Spanish painter Francisco de Goya and Italian masters Jacopo Tintoretto and Caravaggio, whose paintings capture the nation’s historical changes.
Visitors can also view a multicolored wood sculpture of Saint Michael fighting the Devil created by Luisa Roldan, Spain’s first female court sculptor.
According to Ana de la Cueva, director of Spain’s national heritage organization, Patrimonio Nacional, the objective is to “show the richness, diversity, and quality of what Spanish monarchs have gathered over five centuries.”
The 1936–1939 civil war prevented the establishment of a museum to house Spain’s royal collections, which had been conceived almost a century earlier.
The new museum joins a distinguished group of other well-known museums in Madrid, including the Reina Sofia and Prado, which houses Pablo Picasso’s iconic Guernica artwork. To keep the public interested, the Royal Collections Gallery plans to switch out a third of its pieces with new ones roughly every 18 months.
The goal is to display all of our national treasures so that we can bring restored artwork to be displayed. After then, they can return to their former locations, according to De la Cueva. —AFP/APP
