Description
Book SynopsisExplores 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.
Trade Review“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
“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
“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
“A short, intensive, sophisticated, and sweeping study of Madrid’s iconic art museum.”
—Adrian Shubert Journal of Modern History
“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
“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
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Between the Prado and the Pradera
1 A Royal Public Institution, 1819–1833
2 Inscribing Monarchy into the New Regime, 1833–1868
3 Museum and Revolution, 1868–1874
4 Becoming National, 1874–1902
5 The Era of the Masses, 1902–1936
Epilogue: “More Important for Spain than the Republic and the Monarchy Combined”
Notes
Bibliography
Index
