El Greco, Pablo Veronese and the neoclassical painter Rafael Mengs, the big bets of the Prado Museum for 2025

The Prado Museum closed a record 2024 in which it attracted more than 3.5 million visitors and will try to repeat its good numbers with three large exhibitions that will include works by El Greco, Pablo Veroneses and the neoclassical painter Rafael Mengs. The other two bets of the art gallery will be So far, so close. Guadalupe of Mexico in Spainwhich will show the impact and presence of the iconography of the Virgin of Guadalupe in art on both shores of the Atlantic; and a project around the work of the sculptor Juan Muñoz.

Although none of the previous exhibitions feature female artists as protagonists, Miguel Falomir, director of the museum, stated in the presentation of the program this Thursday that they will continue to “claim the role of women in the arts,” with the third edition of The Prado in feminine –dedicated to the 18th century– and through cycles of conferences around figures such as María Zambrano, Rosa Chacel and Emilia Pardo Bazán.

The program is completed by the exhibition Rubens and the artists of the Flemish Baroque that the CaixaForum in Barcelona will be hosted from May 29; and the new installment of The Prado in the streetswhich will continue to carry the works of the public art gallery at a national and international level.

Within the study center, they will continue to develop the literary residency Write in the Pradowhich will bring Nigerian-born British author Helen Oyeyemi and Frenchman Mathias Enard. In addition, the 2025 Chair will have as its title The time factor and historian Robert Lane Fox will give a talk on the pagan and Christian world. Within the cycle of planned conferences, the director wanted to highlight Spanish intellectuals and the Prado Museumfocused on the Silver Age and the 19th Century.

The first major exhibition of the year will be El Greco. Saint Dominic the Ancientwhich will open its doors from February 18 to June 15, curated by Leticia Ruiz, head of the Department of Spanish Renaissance Painting at the Prado. It will bring together the works that the artist painted between 1577 and 1579 for the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo. A commission that included an altarpiece sculpture for the main altar and for two side altarpieces, whose canvases are currently scattered. Thanks to an agreement with the Art Institute of Chicago, the painting of the Assumption of the Virgin will return to the Spanish gallery after more than a century.

The next thing will be Paolo Veronese (1528-1588)which can be visited from May 27 to June 21, curated by Miguel Falomir, director of the museum, and Enrico María dal Pozzolo, professor at the Università degli Studi di Verona. It will focus on the artist’s creative process and his direction of the workshop, and his ability to represent the aspirations of the Venetian elites.