Madrid’s giant art museum, El Prado, has launched a new website dedicated to one of Spain’s great artists.
Goya in El Prado covers the career of Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), who created a huge corpus of work including paintings, engravings and sketches.
The website makes more than 1,000 of Goya’s works available, including rarely seen drawings that are too delicate to be exhibited in the museum. High-resolution images allow the user to minutely examine Goya’s technique. There are also details of the artist’s life and a large collection of his personal letters.
I like it when museums offer their collections in this freely accessible way. It shows that they’re taking their role in public education seriously. There’s only one problem with the site and it’s a major one for many potential users – it’s only in Spanish. This is partially alleviated by the user-friendliness of the design and the visual nature of the subject matter. Still, one hopes the Prado sees fit to add the native language of so many of its visitors.
Until it does, it’s still a beautiful website and a fun way to brush up on your español.
[Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Top image is “The Snowstorm” or “Winter” and was painted in 1787. The bottom image is “The Speed and Daring of Juanito Apiñani in the Ring of Madrid 1815-16”]
