24 November 2014 – 3 May 2015
Opening in November and coinciding with the remodelling of the galleries on the second floor of the Museum’s south wing that house Goya’s cartoons and the collection of 18th-century Spanish paintings, the Museo del Prado will be presenting an exhibition on Goya’s tapestry cartoons, to be shown in its temporary exhibition galleries. The cartoons will be displayed alongside loans from other collections and paintings on deposit or not habitually on display in order to establish an innovative dialogue between Goya’s cartoons and the works of other artists of his own time or earlier. This dialogue will reveal the artist’s links with earlier tradition, the inspiration of the classical world, which was of such fundamental importance in the second half of the 18th century, and his range of contemporary sources.
In addition, the exhibition will reveal how the tapestry cartoons are essential for an understanding of the artist’s work and for an appreciation of his particular technique, unique and varied artistic resources and the particular nature of his models, with their characteristic appearances and distinctive gestures. Together these elements laid the way for Goya’s subsequent creations in his small-format paintings, drawings and print series