Prado Gets Morbid With New Taxidermy Exhibition

Done to death.

Image via Museo Nacional Del Prado

A new exhibition at the Prado features a cache of taxidermy work throughout the museum, placed directly opposite the works of art in the Spanish galleries. The showing is the conception of the artist Miguel Angel Blanco, who wanted to highlight the Prado’s history. When the architect Juan de Villanueva designed the building that the Prado now exists in, in 1785, the intent of King Charles III was for the building to house the royal collection of natural history. Discovering this fact led Blanco to retrieve some of the finest objects from the natural history collection.

"It occurred to me that I could create a contemporary cabinet, an artistic intervention that also showed off the natural history in the paintings that hang in the Prado," Blanco told The Guardian.

There are 22 objects in the exhibition, from stuffed birds to preserved bulls, to skeletons of serpents, to a preserved dolphin. Check out more information on the Prado website.

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[via The Guardian]

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