Antonio López: “The Gallery is a wonderful place, a huge success

The painter Antonio López visited the Royal Collections Gallery, a building constructed, in his words, "with great talent, because it is integrated with everything that surrounds it, without being ostentatious. I like the togetherness of it all, the space and what's in the space, it’s a wonderful place, a huge success". He made particular reference to the lighting: “It’s soft, delicate and doesn’t create discomfort... it’s as the pictures were lit up by a miracle”. 

Antonio López also regarded the tour to be “conducted with great intelligence and sensitivity”. López was particularly interested in the hall displaying the foundational wall of Madrid, “very strong and expressive remains”, and the works of Juan de Flandes, Velázquez, Caravaggio and Dürer. “There are things that I love more. Dürer was the first landscape painter in the West and I find it very exciting. It's really wonderful. I feel identified. We have headed in the same direction of loving the landscape”.  

This artist from La Mancha also visited the Royal Palace in Madrid and was reunited with his work “The Family of Juan Carlos I” ten years after he had completed it. “No painting of mine has such a nice location”, he remarked on seeing it exhibited in the Halberdiers' Hall, the first room in the public tour of the palace, “a splendid place”, according to him. 

The artist, who was accompanied by the President of Patrimonio Nacional, Ana de la Cueva, and the Director of the Royal Collections, Leticia Ruiz, recalled the time he spent working on the canvas as “a fantastic experience” and “an experiment”: “They were 20 very important years. For the team, for all that I experienced here, and for how this story has left its mark on my professional life”.