Patrimonio Nacional reopens this Thursday the El Escorial Painting Museum after a decade closed. The gallery exhibits a hundred works by Titian, Van der Weyden, and Ribera, 21 of which are unpublished.
The El Escorial Painting Museum opens its doors again this Thursday after ten years closed to the public. Patrimonio Nacional has announced the reopening of one of the most complete royal collections in Europe, located in the former Summer Palace of Philip II, according to the institution.
The gallery displays a hundred works by Titian, Van der Weyden, and Ribera, twenty-one of which have never been shown permanently. Almost a third of the pieces have undergone a restoration process, and both the rooms and the museography have been completely renewed.
The tour begins with the major works of the collection. Among the most notable pieces is the Calvary by Rogier van der Weyden, one of the great Flemish jewels of the monastery, and the diptych of the Alegory of Redemption by Michiel Coxcie, known as 'the Flemish Raphael'. Next to it are displayed the paintings that Federico Zuccaro created for the High Altar of the Basilica, which Philip II rejected, works that until now did not have a permanent place in the public tour.
The monastery brings together Italian, Flemish, and Spanish schools in a single itinerary. Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Ribera interact in rooms designed for visitors to understand the connections between them. The light that has been restored to the Calvary after its restoration is one of the most visible changes in the new museography.
The collection was formed over more than two centuries. Philip II transformed the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial into one of the great artistic centres of Europe and gathered some of the most prominent religious works of his collection there. Later, Philip IV, Charles II, Charles IV, and Isabel II expanded the holdings with paintings from the main European schools.
The president of Patrimonio Nacional, Ana de la Cueva, recalled at the inauguration that the reopening responds to a personal concern of Philip II and that these spaces are key to understanding the cultural and political significance of the king and the monastery itself. The institution has allocated 3.1 million euros to the renovation, mostly from NextGenerationEU funds.
There are reopenings that return a space and others that return a way of seeing; this belongs to the latter.
The two museums of the monastery were established in 1963, to mark the fourth centenary of the laying of the first stone. The Painting Museum occupied the former Summer Palace and the Architecture Museum, the Vaults Floor. The reopening returns to San Lorenzo de El Escorial two historical spaces that had been out of the visitor circuits for decades.
The tour is completed with one of the Honor Halls, where original elements of the Holy Week monument designed by Juan de Herrera are displayed, and with an old palace kitchen featuring historical chimneys and kitchenware, set up as a resting area.
From January 1, the visit to the Painting Museum will be included in the general entry to the Royal Monastery. Those who already know the complex will be able to purchase a specific ticket for the museums. Until December 31, the Architecture Museum maintains independent and free access. Timings, rates, and ticket availability can be checked on the official Patrimonio Nacional website.
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