The Prado - by Eugenia Afinoguénova (Paperback)

About the Book

Explores the history of Spain's most iconic art museum. Highlights the political history of the museum's relation to the monarchy, the church, and the liberal nation state, as well as its role as an extension of Madrid's social center, the Prado Promenade.

Book Synopsis

The Prado takes an unconventional look at Spain's most iconic art museum. Focusing on the Prado as a space of urban leisure, Eugenia Afinoguénova highlights the political history of the museum's relation to the monarchy, the church, and the liberal nation-state, as well as its role as an extension of Madrid's social center, the Prado Promenade.

Rather than assume that visitors agreed about how to interpret the museum, Afinoguénova approaches the history of the Prado as a debate about culture and leisure. Just like those crossing the museum's threshold, who did not always trace a firm line between what they could see or do inside the building and outside on the Paseo del Prado, the participants in this debate--journalists, politicians, museum directors, art critics--considered museum-going to be part of a broader discussion concerning citizenship and voting rights, the rise of Madrid to the status of a modern capital, and the growing gap between town and country.

Based on extensive archival research on the museum's displays and policies as well as the attitudes of visitors and city-dwellers, The Prado unfolds the museum's many political and propagandistic roles and examines its complicated history as a monument to the tension between culture and leisure. Art historians and scholars of museum studies and visual and leisure culture will find this foundational study of the Prado invaluable.

Review Quotes

"A rich and richly rewarding book, and one looks forward to the author's future work with great anticipation."

--Clinton D. Young Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies

"A short, intensive, sophisticated, and sweeping study of Madrid's iconic art museum."

--Adrian Shubert Journal of Modern History

"Afinoguénova's attempt to write a fact-rich history of place is ambitious and brave. It offers a new way of interrogating the history of our cultural institutions by inserting them into a web of cultural manifestations that take into account the complexities of life and 'history as it really was.'"

--Michaela Giebelhausen Hispanic Research Journal

"Afinoguénova's harrowing story of the Prado museum and its role in creating a more inclusive Spain is both engaging and an important reminder of the role of public institutions, such as museums, in promoting pluralism in liberal democracies even despite often complicated origins."

--Louie Dean Valencia-García EuropeNow

"Afinoguénova's unconventional yet superbly academic take on museum history and analysis will be of interest to art historians, museum studies professionals, and scholars of visual and cultural history alike. . . . Highly recommended."

--A. Verplaetse Choice

"Eugenia Afinoguénova plays on the complex relationship between the Museo and the Paseo del Prado to make a compelling argument about the liminal and shifting position of the Spanish museum in relation to nationhood and the public. Her deep mining of the archival sources and creative integration of museum and leisure studies should be read by all who love a great museum."

--M. Elizabeth Boone, author of Vistas de España: American Views of Art and Life in Spain, 1860-1914

"This book is much more than a history of the Prado Museum. Afinoguénova's brilliant perception is that the history of the museum can be understood only by situating it in the context of the evolving recreational activities and, increasingly, street politics that took place in the Prado Promenade outside its walls. A fascinating contribution to the history of leisure that shows its imbrication with politics, class, and gender."

--Jo Labanyi, author of Gender and Modernization in the Spanish Realist Novel

About the Author

Eugenia Afinoguénova is Professor of Spanish and Spanish Culture at Marquette University. She is the co-editor of Spain Is (Still) Different: Tourism and Discourse in Spanish Identity and the author of El idiota superviviente: Artes y letras españolas frente a la "muerte del hombre," 1969-1990.