This oversized painting (315 x 437 cm), now largely unknown to the general public, was once the centre of attention at the Museum, even eclipsing works by Francisco de Goya and José de Madrazo during the reign of Ferdinand VII.

“Our aim is to encourage the viewer to look at a work which, aside from its aesthetic merits, helps us to reflect on aspects of art history that often go unnoticed,” in the words of Miguel Falomir, director of the Prado.

Hailed as a major artistic milestone of its day, lauded in the press, reproduced in prints and celebrated in songs and poems, Aparicio’s history painting also served as a political tool. The reconstruction of its original location at the Museo del Prado in 1819, where it became one of the institution’s principal icons, ahead even of works now considered indisputable such as Las Meninas, reveals the ideological toll imposed by Ferdinand VII’s absolutism.

The exhibition analyses the rise and fall of a national icon, from its status as the most powerful visual metaphor for 19th-century Spain to that of a depiction of a merely local anecdote. By displaying the painting in this way, the Prado is encouraging a reflection on the vicissitudes of art and criticism, propaganda, the invention of taste and the role of museums.