I recently visited the Prado Museum with a group of children between 4 and 10 years old. Our goal was to visit the Temporary exhibitions on Renoir and Rubens which offers until February 6 and January 23 respectively. As always, they have exceeded my expectations and enjoyed the works very much.
Children love to paint and, observing the works of great artists directly is how they best assimilate artistic concepts from small and more learn. On this occasion, the difference between the two styles and the stories told by the paintings have fascinated them.
Then, in the afternoon, they took their paintings and began to experience full of joy.
With Renoir They have entered into Impressionism. Open-mouthed they stayed to see the pictures closely, full of brushstrokes of all the mixed colors and apparently close reports. As we moved away, they discovered the shapes and volumes, all the chromatic richness. And this has given us the possibility of making them better understand what color is and how light influences what our eyes really see.
Then we went up to see Rubens. The naked women, far from the current beauty canon, have loved them. After all, their eyes are not manipulated by the varying concepts of beauty and they knew how to recognize the enormous vitality of the works and their difficulty.
In addition, my son, who was the eldest of the group, was explaining the mythological legends that many works illustrate and were dumbfounded as if they were listening to stories.
But without a doubt the most successful has been "The birth of the Milky Way" . The picture shows a really curious moment of the adventures of the child Hercules, when his father Zeus puts him to take the chest of the goddess Hera, so that the child could be immortal despite being born of a woman. Then, when Hera realizes the deception, she brushes it away sharply and the milk shoots out, the Milky Way being born from this stream.
Some, incidental, has celebrated asking for breastfeeding his mother and this time, I assure you, nobody has called our attention to breastfeed in public, although some visitors looked sideways between amused and amazed.
Then this has allowed us to talk about the stars of our Galaxy and how, when science did not know how to give answers, the ancients explained natural phenomena through legends and metaphors.
The children had a great time meeting Renoir and Rubens at the Prado Museum And surely, with a little prior preparation of the visit, your children, approximately four years old, can also enjoy it.
In Bébés and more | Children's audioguides at the Prado Museum, Tetada protests at the Prado Museum, the consequences of a shameful performance
