Four large -format paintings, belonging to the deposit ofl National Prado Museum At the University of Zaragoza, they have returned to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters after an integral conservation and restoration process carried out within the framework of the rehabilitation works of the university building.
These are four oils on canvas (three of the nineteenth and one of the 18 Madrid anonymous painter.
Large paintings were originally located in the Faculty Boxes and are part of a set of 23 works that the Prado keeps in deposit at the University of Zaragoza, mostly since the end of the 19th century.
A long -distance restoration
The rehabilitation project of philosophy and letters, initiated in 2018, allowed not only the proper transfer and storage of the works during the building works, but also undertake their restoration, given the deterioration they presented, with important losses of pigment and accumulation of dirt.
The restoration has developed in close collaboration with the Prado Museum, whose deposit area has supervised the process and has assumed the framing costs of the pieces. On the part of the University of Zaragoza, various institutional services and head have actively participated in this project. The Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, with their deans Elena Barlés and José Antonio Beltrán Cebollada and their respective teams, have lent all their support to the process.
The Vice -Rectorate for Infrastructure and his Vice Chancellor Ángel Pueyo, facilitated the economic resources for the hiring of the different restorations. The involvement of the Vice -Rectorate of Culture and Social Projection in a first stage has also been key, under the direction of Yolanda Polo, and currently, as a vice -rector of culture and heritage, with Eliseo Serrano in front. From this unit all the necessary resources for the development of the project have been contributed, which has been technically coordinated by María García Soria, Superior Technique of Cultural Heritage of the University.
A historical legacy that is updated
The history of these deposits goes back at the end of the 19th century, when the Prado Museum, in the absence of space in the Villanueva building, began to send works to different institutions of the country. In the case of Zaragoza, they arrived by real orders of 1884 and 1896, being initially located in the former Literary University of the Plaza de la Magdalena and subsequently transferred to different faculties.
In the four works that occupy us, the Torre de San Agustín accompanied in the same stairs, which was restored on the occasion of the commemoration of the Zaragoza sites and moved to the prelude to the rectoral in the Paraninfo building and the lovers of Teruel, canvas that went on to deposit in the Foundation lovers of Teruel, following the current policy of deposits that the Prado Museum is being carried out adaptation and tune of them with the institution that hosts them.
With this action, the University of Zaragoza reaffirms its role as an active agent in the conservation and dissemination of artistic heritage, revealing the firm commitment of the rector Rosa Bolea in the research and valorization of the collections that custody the University of Zaragoza. The institution currently works in the drafting of a specific regulation referring to the correct management of its cultural heritage, as well as in the extension and reinforcement of its conservation, restoration and research of collections, thus consolidating a regulatory and operational framework that guarantees its adequate protection, management and future projection.
