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Royal Portraits at the Prado Museum with Dr. Marta López Beriso

Royal Portraits at the Prado Museum with Dr. Marta López Beriso


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

Portraits were designed to impress and seduce the viewer through their faces, hands, and outfits in the search of leaving a vivid document of their social status. From Rafael to Goya, they are pieces of “muted” propaganda, visual speeches elaborated through expressions, colors, and objects carefully depicted to define a certain type of power through the beauty of the canvas. This conversation will take a deep dive into analyzing a curated selection of said portraits displayed at the Prado Museum as we further our understanding of just how to read these artistic sources.

Members of privileged social classes searched for artists to depict them the way they truly looked; in their uniqueness and singularity. Part of their power related to their capacity to hire the best artists in their time. We’ll discuss exactly just how these portraits show political, intellectual, or religious power. In the Spanish royal collections, it spreads over all those members in close or far relationship with the royal family. Official portraits of the Hapsburg or Bourbon kings stand in front of those of their dead children, wives, or favorite buffoons, where the deformity is as much admired as a perfectly symmetrical face.

Led by art historian, Marta López Beriso, this interactive seminar will analyze, step by step, various kinds of portraits by El Greco, Velázquez or Goya as well as those by Italian or Flemish artists such as Rafael, Tiziano, Rembrandt or Rubens or still, those less well known by Sánchez Coello, Moor or Berruguete. Addressed to all kinds of adult audiences, the seminar will cover from the Renaissance to late Baroque Art, defining together beauty and power. We’ll also look at the great examples of some empowered women such as painter Anguissola or some not so well known queens of Spain. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased ability to observe, describe, and understand the different messages and interpretations artworks at The Prado Museum convey.

Professor Marta López Beriso is an active scholar and educator in the field of Art History. She teaches at various American universities in Madrid. She holds degrees in Art History and Archaeology (B.A. Université de La Sorbonne-Paris IV), Arts and Culture Administration (M.A. Universidad de Barcelona), and a PhD in Art History, expertise in History of Photography (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). She is also the founder and director of “Aulas de Arte”, a private non-profit organization, dedicated to educational services in museums, nationwide and internationally. Born and raised in Madrid, she has studied in Paris and also worked in New York at the beginning of her professional career, at MOMA. Back in Madrid she feels the city as a cosmopolitan insider. She knows both the historical and traditional Madrid she discovered with her mother and grandmother as well as the most contemporary and alternative side of the city.

Not suitable for children under age 13 (sensitive content).

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 6 reviews
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(6)
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B
Barbara (Hackettstown, US)
Wonderful as always

As always, Dr. Beriso gives a clear and in-depth discussion of the art. Much to consider and research afterwards....

J
Joan R (Westerly, US)
well done survey of The Prado's royal portraits

Mara gave interesting commentary to give context to the portraits and highlighted a number of different artists as well

N
Nancy J Grayson (Austin, US)
A Fascinating Subject

This survey of specialized portraits contains fascinating historical facts and a model of how to view all Royal portraits.

A
Anonymous (Porto Alegre, BR)

Guest did not leave comment

R
Rebecca
Historical insights

The focus on official portraits let us see how rulers wanted to see themselves and reinforced what we've been learning about Spanish and European history.

Customer Reviews

Based on 6 reviews
100%
(6)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
B
Barbara (Hackettstown, US)
Wonderful as always

As always, Dr. Beriso gives a clear and in-depth discussion of the art. Much to consider and research afterwards....

J
Joan R (Westerly, US)
well done survey of The Prado's royal portraits

Mara gave interesting commentary to give context to the portraits and highlighted a number of different artists as well

N
Nancy J Grayson (Austin, US)
A Fascinating Subject

This survey of specialized portraits contains fascinating historical facts and a model of how to view all Royal portraits.

A
Anonymous (Porto Alegre, BR)

Guest did not leave comment

R
Rebecca
Historical insights

The focus on official portraits let us see how rulers wanted to see themselves and reinforced what we've been learning about Spanish and European history.