Overview
- The Museo del Prado has put José Aparicio’s El año del hambre en Madrid back on view in Sala 66 as the first entry in its new “Una obra, una historia” program.
- Fresh from a long restoration, the large 1818 canvas returns cleaner, more legible, and structurally stable, according to the museum.
- The scene shows French soldiers offering bread that starving Madrileños refuse, and the inscription “Nada sin Fernando” signals loyalty to King Fernando VII.
- When the Prado opened in 1819, the work held pride of place and was valued at 60,000 reales, outpacing Goya’s 8,000, and it was widely reproduced and praised.
- The new display asks viewers to weigh the painting’s former fame, its role as monarchist propaganda, and its later demotion after 1868 as a case study in how museums form and revise the canon.