El Greco's Library
dal 31/3/2014 al 28/6/2014
Segnalato da
Communications Department - Prado Museum
31/3/2014
El Greco's Library
Prado Museum, Madrid
El Greco had 130 books in his library when he died. The exhibition will include around forty from the Prado's own library, the Biblioteca Nacional, and other institutions in Madrid.
The exhibition El Greco’s Library, organised by the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Biblioteca Nacional de España and the Fundación El Greco 2014, will aim to reconstruct the artist’s theoretical and literary sources through the books that he owned and which are known from the two inventories compiled by his son Jorge Manuel in 1614 and 1621.
El Greco had 130 books in his library when he died. The exhibition will include around forty from the Prado’s own library, the Biblioteca Nacional, and other institutions in Madrid. Among them will be four books belonging to the artist including editions of Vitruvius and Vasari annotated by El Greco with fascinating reflections on architecture and painting.
The exhibition will be completed with a letter by the artist, loaned from the municipal archive in Parma (Italy), nine prints that El Greco probably used as a source of inspiration for his compositions and five paintings which reveal different connections between his pictorial output and his library.
Image: Detail: Rodrigo de la Fuente (?), El Greco. Oil on canvas, 96 x 82,3 cm, ca. 1582-1585. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado
Museo Nacional del Prado.
Calle Ruiz de Alarcón 23 - Madrid
Opening hours
From Monday to Saturday: 10am – 8pm. Sundays and holidays: 10am - 7pm.
Closed: January 1, May 1 and December 25.
Reduced opening hours: January 6, December 24 and 31, 10am – 2pm.
Ticket price
General: 14 €
General admission + official guide: 23 €
Reduced: 7 €
Free: 0 €
This ticket allows the holder to visit the museum collection and temporary exhibitions on the same day