The Prado Museum: A Collection of Wonders

A 2019 3D Produzioni and Nexo Digital production in collaboration with the Prado Museum. A documentary film written and directed by Valeria Parisi, hosted by Jeremy Irons. Click on CC for English subtitles.

The first cinematic journey through the rooms, stories and emotions of one of the most visited museums in the world. Its wealth of over 8000 art treasures is a spell-binding experience drawing almost 3 million visitors to Madrid every year. How often have we thought to ourselves: if only museums could talk! This documentary would like to do just that: let the Prado speak for itself. The museum is celebrating its 200th birthday in 2019 and tells the story of its life. A spectacular journey in Madrid covering the six centuries of the history of Spain as a nation. History told through art, through the eight thousand works of art to be found in the Museum's collections, and at the same time discovering the story behind each one. A painting is canvas, color, matter, and form, but it is also the story of men and women, painters and kings, palaces and queens, wealth and misery, body and soul.

To celebrate its 200th anniversary after its foundation in 19th November 1819, legendary movie star Jeremy Irons turns in visitor and narrator of the Spanish The Prado Museum located in City of Madrid to walk by the different halls through the over 1700 works and 7000 art treasures collected inside it, explaining the origins of the museum at early 19th century, that involved kings and queens of Spain across the time, as well as some of the most important painters of history as Titian, El Greco, Velazquez, Rubens, Bruegel, Mantegna, Goya and Bosch. The film interweaves the art narrative with a study of the architecture and an analysis of valuable archival materials and includes interviews with various experts from the Prado Museum. It takes a close look at not only the magnificent works of art but also the landscape, the palaces and buildings that saw the birth and development of these extraordinary collections.

The life of the Prado collection began with the birth of Spain as a nation and the marriage between Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile; a union that marked the start of the great Spanish Empire. Yet, over the centuries, painting had been a universal language that knew no boundaries. If there is one museum where it is clear that painting was not affected by nationalism then that museum must surely be the Prado, with its eclectic and multifaceted collections demonstrating that art has no passports limiting its circulation, that rather it is a universal means to understand and convey the thoughts and feelings of human beings.

The documentary film features the participation of the director, curators and restorers of the Museum, and the personal testimony of five women from the Spanish cultural scene: Helena Pimenta, set designer and theatre director, Laura Garcia Lorca, president of the Garcia Lorca Foundation, Olga Pericet, dancer, Pilar Pequeno, photographer, and Marina Saura, actress and daughter of the painter Antonio Saura, as well as Norman Foster, architect of the project for the future remodelling of the Hall of Realms. The filming has taken place in Spain and Italy at the Prado Museum, the Hall of Realms, Royal Sites such as the Escorial, the Monastery of Yuste or the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales, with the exceptional participation of National Heritage, and the settings of Madrid and the Italian cities connected with the main artists and their training in Naples, Rome and Venice.