Prado reinstates José Aparicio's once-popular painting after 150-year exile

The Prado Museum in Madrid has reinstated José Aparicio's 1818 painting 'The Year of the Famine in Madrid' after more than 150 years in storage. Once the museum's most popular work, the allegorical canvas depicting madrileños refusing bread from French soldiers during the Napoleonic occupation fell from favor due to shifting political and aesthetic tastes. The painting is the inaugural piece in the Prado's new exhibition series 'A Work, a Story,' which aims to contextualize artworks beyond their aesthetic merits. Curators Celia Guilarte Calderón de la Barca and Carlos G Navarro highlight the painting's propagandistic intent under Ferdinand VII and its trajectory from celebrated masterpiece to symbol of bad taste. The series invites reflection on how taste, politics, and context evolve over generations. The painting's history is tied to Spain's changing political currents, from Ferdinand's absolutist reign to the first republic. By the late 19th century, it was ridiculed in a book as a test of tackiness. The exhibition also contrasts Aparicio's work with Francisco Goya's depictions of civilian suffering, which later eclipsed it. The Prado's director Miguel Falomir stated the series encourages viewers to consider overlooked aspects of art history.