In Madrid, the Prado Museum turns the tables and reveals behind the scenes

Revealing the hidden side of a work is the promise of Reversos (Envers), the latest exhibition at the Prado Museum in Madrid, where the public can discover the surprising reverse side of the paintings, the unsuccessful attempts or the hidden messages of the artists. In short, behind the scenes. It was the most famous painting in the Prado that inspired the idea for the exhibition: Velázquez's Las Meninas. On this immense and enigmatic canvas the painter himself appears facing the viewer, behind his easel. A mirror effect which has fueled numerous theses in the world of painting.

It is a faithful reproduction of the back of the work which welcomes the public, an immense wooden frame measuring 3.6 m by 3.2 m placed on the ground, which increases the impression of the gigantism of the canvas. “This exhibition goes well beyond the simple fact of turning the paintings on the wall,” explains its curator, Miguel Ángel Blanco.

The latter inspected the Prado funds for seven years. “I saw all the backs of the paintings. Front and back,” he said. Loans from 29 international museums and collections were added. Among them, a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh, exhibited for the first time in the Spanish museum, whose easel occupies the foreground. A similar scene of the Painter in his studio by Rembrandt, also hung. Titian, Magritte, Goya and, more recently, Sophie Calle complete the collection.

Staging, mise en abyme, trompe l'oeil, hidden scribbles, messages scribbled by the artist, the works can be examined from every angle, sharpening a curiosity flirting with indiscretion. In rooms with entirely black walls, other works are, like jewelry, displayed in display cases around which the public can wander. The paintings become objects available to the eye, without any more secrets. It's about changing the viewer's point of view and taking them behind the scenes of creation and the museum, where they would never have access, to open "a dimensional door to the secrets of art », explains Miguel Ángel Blanco.

Several paintings reveal crossed out sketches and unfinished projects, while the front is perfectly done. Also included is the original stretcher of one of the most famous paintings in the world, Guernica, found two years ago in the reserves of the MOMA in New York. “They discovered these crossbars and this label that said 'Picasso, San Francisco' because he traveled through 30 cities. He was pinned and unhooked 45 times. It’s the most crucified frame in history,” says the commissioner, pointing to the holes that dot the wooden structure. As for this black trace, it is “the unknown brushstroke of Guernica, a brushstroke which escaped Picasso and which remained on this frame”, he enthuses.

A work by Michelangelo Pistoletto (Easel on Canvas, 1962-1975) features the audience, who are reflected in a full-length mirror on which an easel has been painted, transforming the spectator into an artist like Velázquez in Las Meninas. A painting by Martin van Meytens (1731) makes you smile: face A, the kneeling Good Sister shows a nun in front of a prayer table, while behind her back another sister seems to be speaking to her. Face B, the same nun stands in the same position and, seen from behind, has her alb raised on her back, her buttocks exposed and her stockings decorated with a red bow, all exhibited to the other Carmelite.

The mischievous photos of Eliott Erwitt, one of the Magnum agency photographers who died last month, immortalizing spectators at the Prado brighten up the journey: we see a group of men huddled together in front of a female nude next to a painting showing a dressed woman in front of whom stands a single spectator. Inaugurated in November, the exhibition will be held until March 3, 2024.