My name's Bernardo Pajares
and since last year, 2016,
I have been responsible for the Museum's Department of Copies,
which is part of the Registrar's and Exhibitions Department.
I'm looking forward to telling you about what I do at the Museum.
As support material I'll be using these two copies of Velázquez's Crucified Christ,
one of his masterpieces.
I've chosen a half-finished copy,
done in six or seven sessions,
by a painter from Granada called Concepción,
and another almost finished copy of this Christ by a young man,
again Andalusian, called Santiago.
Velázquez is one of the artists most frequently requested for copying, and Murillo as well,
but the Crucified Christ is one of the paintings
that most interests copyists.
Velazquez went to Italy and during that trip to Italy, which he made in 1630,
about two year before painting this Christ,
he took advantage of his time to see the masters of painting,
the Italian masters, and classical sculptures in order to learn from them.
This was a technique that he had not yet acquired in his Seville period.
On returning from Italy he painted, for example, Vulcan's Forge,
a work that notably reveals the new knowledge he brought back to Spain.
This is also about the fact that people are allowed to copy in the Museum,
and in other museums apart from the Prado,
so that artists can learn and the Museum can educate, not just visitors
but also painters of our time, making it a living museum.
Traditionally, compositions have always been imitated, with some painters inspiring
others through the classic engravings and drawings.
In other words, sometimes the copy is not just the copy "per se"
but is a copy made in order to achieve something, to reach a goal in the career
of an artist who has chosen that work because it interests them.
It can be used for direct copying,
to produce a reproduction for its own sake or to learn about the preparation.
Santiago, for example, had problems with the canvas because it has a thicker weave than
Velazquez's but he wanted the preparation to be very similar
to the Sevillian master's.
Concepción didn't.
As you can see, she is painting directly on the blank canvas with the priming that she brings
from the shop where she bought it.
She isn't doing any preliminary drawing.
What's happening?
She may have a problem with the dimensions when she reaches the part of the feet
and the termination of the cross as it may not fit.
During our daily follow-up in the galleries she has told me
she might be adding another piece of canvas at the bottom, sewing it on
and adding the part that she needs.
Each has their own technique and this is also what this is about.
Let's now look at the first regulations for the Museo Nacional de Pintura y Escultura,
which was the Museum's name in 1860.
One of the requirements for being allowed to copy in the Museum was that of sending a request
to the director, together with a certificate of proficiency and good conduct
signed by someone known at court.
The regulations also stated: "It is not permitted to do any squaring up
or draw any lines on the paintings".
I'm not referring here to the copies, I'm talking about the originals.
"And it is not permitted to touch them or their frames".
"Right of entry will be taken away from anyone who, on the pretext of
cleaning the paintings in order to see the colours of the original better, applies water,
oil or varnish or any other substance to it."
By 1863 there is a reference to the fact that "it is forbidden to make copies of the same size
as the originals in this Royal Establishment".
This is the first mention of the fact that a copy cannot be the same size as the original.
In the present day the rules state that a copy must be 5 centimetres smaller or larger
than the original.
The maximum permitted size of a copy is 1.3 metres and no more.
Apart from the rule about copies being 5 centimetres smaller or larger,
no copy can ever measure more than 1.3 metres
as it would conceal the original.
There were copyists who complained that they couldn't see the original
because it was so high up and the light reflected off it.
The rules in this respect state that "it is forbidden in all cases to take a painting off
the wall and put it on an easel in order to copy it".
They also state that "however, if the director considers it necessary, it can be removed
and placed where the copyist can see it better and can copy it".
However, in no case could it be taken down and placed on an easel,
which is what the copyists requested.
In the present day it is they who use easels,
setting them up so as not to obstruct the label or the painting.
It should be noted that some paintings cannot be copied.
Las Meninas, for example.
This is impossible because the painting is always surrounded by visitors who need to see it.
At the time when these 19th-century regulations were in place,
Fortuny was painting and he made a copy of Ribera's Saint Andrew,
among several others.
I don't know if he imagined that Ribera's Saint Andrew would one day be displayed
in the galleries of the Museum as it is today.
Apart from allowing him to learn Ribera's technique,
this Saint Andrew led him to paint his own Elderly nude Man in the Sun,
Both in the 19th century and the 1960s up to
1,000 copies a year were made, or more.
Last year there were around 45 and it looks as though this year there will be about the same.
Around 30 permissions to copy are granted a year.
A copyist or a person who wishes to be a copyist at the Museum has to present their cv,
photographs of their work, the type of work they do,
and a letter of recommendation.
Not, as I said earlier, signed by a person known at court but by a Fine Arts professor
or by another artist who confirms that they have achieved
a certain level.
This request is studied and once it is approved the General Coordinator of Conservation
gives them permission to paint for a year, and that annual permission can also be renewed.
I would like you take away the idea that this is a living museum, as I said at the start
and that every day people are here creating works in the galleries
and not knowing where they will end.
Some are more mechanical than others, some have one aim and others a different one
but I think there is something magical about this, seeing how from nothing, from the blank canvas,
a work of art finally appears that is more or less similar, depending on each artist, a homage,
a copy, an interpretation of that of the original artist.
Thank you very much.
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