Spain’s world-famous Prado Museum is set to rename paintings and remove thousands of ‘offensive’ terms from their descriptions, following a major review to make sure historic works of art comply with the country’s disability laws.
Workers at the Prado looked at nearly 27,000 descriptions of paintings on its website, and the signs that accompany 1,800 pieces of art as part of the review.
Paintings that are set to be changed include The Boy from Vallecas by Velázquez, painted in 1638 and depicting Francisco Lezcano, from the Basque Country, a person who was known to have a place in Spain’s royal court between 1634 and 1649, the year he died.
The sign that describes the painting previously read: ‘In addition to dwarfism, he suffered from “cretinism with oligophrenia”.’
It now reads: ‘In addition to achondroplasia, he suffered from “cretinism with oligophrenia”.’
Workers at the Prado looked at nearly 27,000 descriptions of paintings on its website, and the signs that accompany 1,800 pieces of art as part of the review
Spain’s world-famous Prado Museum is set to rename paintings and remove thousands of ‘offensive’ terms from their descriptions
The sign for The Buffoon El Primo, also by Velázquez, has been edited. It previously read: ‘This is one of Velázquez’s portraits of dwarfs.’
It now reads: ‘This is one of Velázquez’s portraits.’
A museum official told the Times: ‘We have a duty to be exemplary as a key institution.’
The added that given the ‘political consensus, we have decided to revisit, with a sharper criterion, signs that we did not see anything odd about when they were written, but that now we find are out of step with the times.’
The museum said it would not change the titles of works where they are ‘historical’, pointing to the engraving The Faggot, Auntie Gila, made by legendary artist Francisco Goya, who also painted the famed Saturn Devouring His Son in the early 19th century.
But it did change two works of art by Rodrigo de Villandrando and Juan van der Hamen y León, previously titled: ‘Prince Felipe and the Dwarf, Miguel Soplillo’ and ‘Portrait of a Dwarf.’
The first has eliminated the word ‘dwarf’, while the other replaced the word with ‘buffoon.’
Europe has gone through a crisis in publishing and art over the past year that has seen major institutions change language and titles to capitulate to younger audiences.
Last February, publishing house Puffin Books came under fire for altering the language of many of Roald Dahl’s books to soften what they called ‘derogatory language.’
The three-year process resulted in hundreds of removed or altered words and passages, The Telegraph found at the time.