Cuaderno del Prado

The Prado is Ximena Maier’s favorite museum. She knows it intimately, having wandered its galleries for over twenty years. Her visits tend to be brief. Sometimes she walks from one end to the other; at other times, she goes in search of a specific motif—hats, dogs, hands, shoes, or the figures she finds most compelling—or to reconnect with a favorite painter or pause to contemplate a particular work. Occasionally, it is simply an excuse to escape the heat or the rain, or to let time pass. Yet she always takes the opportunity to observe everything around her closely, to listen to visitors' conversations and comments, and, of course, to draw. Like almost everyone else, she makes no secret of her fondness for Velázquez and Goya; there are painters she adores and others she has taken a dislike to, without quite knowing why. Some days she draws what she already knows; on others, she simply lets herself drift through the galleries until she stumbles upon something unexpected. For Ximena, the Prado Museum is, above all, a place of enjoyment. This book—the result of a year of frequent visits—is an invitation to experience the pure delight of sitting before a painting or sculpture, whether for the first time or the hundredth, and letting our imaginations run free.