{"id":481350,"date":"2026-03-18T01:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/481350\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:41:14","slug":"as-prado-takes-on-tour-groups-can-art-ever-be-intimate-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/481350\/","title":{"rendered":"As Prado takes on tour groups, can art ever be intimate again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

All is silence at first. On entering the Prado Museum in Madrid, no sign betrays the crowds reputed to congest the spaces in front of its most renowned paintings. <\/p>\n

Not a soul stirs by Jos\u00e9 de Ribera\u2019s The Trinity, nor across the hall opposite, next to El Greco\u2019s treatment of the same subject.<\/p>\n

In the Murillo room stands Juan de Mesa\u2019s polychromatic statue of Saint John the Baptist at its centre, gesturing with a hand to non-existent visitors. Diego Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s buffoons, until recently known as dwarfs, caper in an empty room. <\/p>\n

A lone elderly woman, seated on a bench, massages her legs in front of Vanvitelli\u2019s View of Venice from the Island of San Giorgio. Even in the cavernous room housing Las Meninas, only half a dozen heads crane towards Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s most famed work.<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

Las Meninas by Diego Vel\u00e1zquez<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

But on descending towards Pieter Bruegel the Elder\u2019s The Triumph of Death, the murmur begins to transform into a hubbub, the trickles of visitors into torrents. Then they become a hullabaloo and a sea of souls at Hieronymus Bosch\u2019s The Garden of Earthly Delights, mirroring the chaos depicted in the triptych\u2019s third panel: Hell.<\/p>\n

More voices than a polyphonic choir exclaim wonder and horror in a Babel of tongues. Guides, speaking into microphones, rattle off interpretations about the mysterious piece. Security staff shout \u201cPor favor!\u201d as the noise reaches a crescendo. <\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch \u2026<\/p>\n

GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\"Queen<\/p>\n

\u2026 receives a royal visit from Spain\u2019s Queen Letizia in 2016<\/p>\n

Such scenes have led Miguel Falomir, the Prado\u2019s director, to call time on uncontrolled crowds and to curate the numbers flocking about the museum. <\/p>\n

\u2022 King of Spain turns art critic for mystery masterpiece<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cVisiting the museum cannot be like taking the underground at rush hour,\u201d he has said. The Prado announced this week that it has started to take measures by reducing the maximum number of people per visitor group from 30 to 20.<\/p>\n

It follows visitor numbers breaking records. Last year the figure reached 3.5 million, prompting Falomir to say that the museum was in danger of becoming \u201coversaturated\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prado does not need a single visitor more<\/a>,\u201d he said, pointing out that it did not want to become, like the Louvre, a victim of its success.<\/p>\n

The aim of the new restriction, according to museum officials, is to ensure \u201ca better quality of visit\u201d. Group visits account for about a sixth of the museum\u2019s total visitors, at a daily average of 1,609 people.<\/p>\n

Among visitors and guides to the museum, the measure appeared to be mostly welcome. \u201cI am glad they have reduced the group size. Art should be an intimate experience,\u201d said Bradley Pettigrew, an American tour guide. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be rushed through a museum like cattle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pettigrew, who has given Prado tours for over three years, added: \u201cBig groups push people out of galleries. The Garden of Earthly Delights is in a nightmare room. I have seen people pass out in there on about half a dozen occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Long<\/p>\n

As part of this initial package of measures to ease the heavy flow of visitors, the museum has announced that \u201cgroup visits will be scheduled for times of lower visitor numbers, and visitors will be encouraged to purchase general admission tickets online for direct entry to the museum\u201d to prevent long queues outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis provision will come into force immediately, although groups already booked up to June 1 will be accommodated,\u201d the museum stated. The maximum group size for temporary exhibitions will remain at 15 people \u2014 although the possibility of reducing this remains open. \u201cIn the case of educational groups, the limit of 30 will also be maintained,\u201d the museum announced.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Clothed Maja by Goya<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

In front of Goya\u2019s The Clothed Maja, Claudia Yeste, who works for La Ardilla Rusa, a company that takes school groups on art tours, oversaw about 20 Spanish children seated on the floor, encouraging them to create newspaper reports based on the 19th-century artist\u2019s works. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe restriction seems positive and I am glad that they have maintained the 30 limit for school groups, but I hope it is flexible as we often work with classes with more than 30 pupils,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Billionaires, secret deals, unmarked vans: how to stage an art blockbuster<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut what seems more important is that they should create more routes through the museum so that people don\u2019t gather in groups in the same rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falomir has said that his new plan will focus on managing how people move through the museum. Entrances, he added, would be optimised and existing rules \u2014 including the ban on taking photographs inside the galleries \u2014 more strictly enforced to prevent congestion and distractions in the exhibition spaces.<\/p>\n

The exhibition space will be expanded by 2,500 sq m in 2028 with the opening of the Sal\u00f3n de Reinos, which will house its grand historical works. <\/p>\n

Security staff in front of Bosch\u2019s work viewed the new measures favourably. But one quipped: \u201cIt\u2019s not the size of the group so much as their behaviour \u2014 for example some school groups are marvellous but others should be locked up in boarding schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

But much of its space remains free of group crushes. Alistair George, 81, from Ashbourne in Derbyshire, was on his way to see the museum\u2019s Caravaggio paintings. \u201cMy son said to get here early because it gets very, very busy,\u201d he said. \u201cI shan\u2019t rush. I\u2019ve got four days to look at them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All is silence at first. On entering the Prado Museum in Madrid, no sign betrays the crowds reputed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-481350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}