In anticipation of the approval of the reform in Article 49 of the Constitution, the Prado Museum examined the cartouches of its paintings and archives and Eliminated terms that are now considered offensive, such as “dwarf”, “crippled” or “deformed”.
Following the agreement between President Pedro Sánchez and PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijoo, Eliminate the term “disabled” and change it to “disabled people”Prado went further and made changes to its website, posters and files.
Museum sources told EFE, “As a reference institution, we have a duty to set an example,” adding that after learning about the change in Article 49, “we decided to reconsider the issue on which political consensus has been reached, with sharper criteria.” “, points out that we did not see any features when they were written, but now we have discovered that there are terms that do not comply with the rhythm of time in line with social sensitivity.”
Painstaking work carried out by Ana Martín from the documentation department and also by the collection department. They examined almost 27,000 files on the web And Approximately 1,800 cartridges of the paintings are on display. Some of them changed this Wednesday, some will come into their own tomorrow.
Derogatory terms and physical references were removed, but not the names of the pictures “Because we change the rhythm of history. We match social sensitivity without changing the historical value of the pieces or the descriptive value of the texts”, as in the title of the engraving “El maricón de la aunt Gila”, signed by Goya in his own handwriting.
Paintings such as ‘El Niño de Vallecas’ or ‘El jester el Primo’, both by Diego Velázquez; ‘Prince Felipe and Miguel Soplillo’ by Rodrigo de Villadrando; Juan Carreño de Miranda’s painting ‘Eugenia Martínez Vallejo, dressed’ are some of those whose description has been changed.
This isn’t the first time Prado has changed its cartridges. At the launch of a new itinerary titled ‘Feminine Prado’ in 2022, which showcases the role of women as patrons, the museum has eliminated terms such as ‘wife’ or ‘unattractive woman’ from posters of the works. To show a more current story.