More than 640 treasures from Spain’s royal collections will be on display in Madrid’s Museum of Royal Collections, which will open on 28 June. Among the works will be Diego Velázquez’s white horse, Caravaggio’s Salome, Francisco Goya’s paintings, gold and silver armor worn by Charles V and musical instruments. The gallery will also house personal possessions of the Spanish monarchy, such as clocks, tapestries, furniture, and glassware, as well as artefacts from Spanish monasteries. The gallery has taken a quarter of a century to complete, with work halted by the Spanish Civil War, the Franco dictatorship, the 2008 financial crisis, and Covid-19.
Patrimonio Nacional, the Spanish heritage institution, has overseen the project. President Ana de la Cueva said the gallery would offer “a museum of different collections” and “shows all the luxury goods that our monarchs collected.” The aim is to showcase the changing country and the changing tastes of its rulers. It will include different areas covering the Habsburg monarchs, the Bourbon dynasty, and 20th-century Spain. De la Cueva said the gallery would complement the Royal Palace and give visitors a chance to see pieces that have never been exhibited before.
The Museum of Royal Collections is also home to a lovingly restored wooden sculpture of Saint Michael’s Archangel Vanquishing the Devil, created in 1692 by Spain’s Luisa Roldán, the first woman to become a court sculptor. The sculpture is one of De la Cueva’s favorites and was carefully restored by a team of over 20 people, who moved the 2.6m-high statue from a workshop on the fourth floor of the royal palace. It is also thought to have personal touches, with Roldán using her own face to model the archangel’s and her husband’s face to model the devil’s. The gallery will give Roldán “a long-overdue moment of glory”, Ruiz said.
The project’s development was delayed by discovering a large chunk of Madrid’s 9th-century Arab wall, the 2008 financial crisis, and the Covid pandemic. However, despite these challenges, the gallery’s goal is to share hundreds of items drawn from the 19 royal palaces and 10 monasteries under Patrimonio Nacional’s stewardship. The structure of the gallery will bridge the temporal gap elegantly, blending in with the palace’s granite and sober lines. The gallery, with its amazing views towards the west of Madrid, is also lighter than expected.