After the exceptionally positive reception to “The Female Perspective” thematic route (December 2022 to April 22023), which has become a reference point for other museums and collections, the Museo del Prado is presenting a second edition (from today until 8 September). It invites us to celebrate the collecting activities of different women from European royal dynasties who made key contributions to enlarging and enhancing the former Spanish royal collection and thus the present-day Museum.

Following a chronological ordering, the first route focused on women whose activities spanned the years 1451 to 1633, from the birth of Isabella the Catholic to the death of Isabel Clara Eugenia. For this second edition the route moves forward in time with the aim of focusing on new female patrons of art, on this occasion spanning the period from Elizabeth of Bourbon to Maria Anna of Neuburg, between 1602 and 1700. A particularly outstanding figure is Queen Christina of Sweden, whose collecting activities account for the presence of the most important group of classical sculptures in the Museo Nacional del Prado, in addition to fundamental and outstanding paintings in the collection such as Dürer’s panels of Adam and Eve.

Museo Nacional del Prado [Madrid]