For the sixth consecutive year, the Prado Museum has moved to Pamplona in the framework del lecture series that the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation organises in collaboration with the University of Navarra. More than 300 people attended the first session, given by Alberto Pancorbo, art historian and director of Activities of the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation. The opening ceremony was presided over by Julia Pavón, dean of the Friends of the Prado Foundation, Virgilio Sagüés, Virgilio Sagüés, Virgilio Sagüés, Virgilio Sagüés and Julia Pavón. School of Humanities and Social SciencesThe opening ceremony was presided over by Julia Pavón, Dean of the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation, Virgilio Sagüés, trustee of the Diario de Navarra Foundation and Jesús Calavia, director Operations Manager of Viscofan, business sponsor.

Under the title "In the beginning was Giotto. An introduction to Renaissance art", Pancorbo analysed the figure and work of the artist who is considered a precursor of this period, also known as "the Springtime of art". At the beginning of his talk, he quoted a phrase that the late Francisco Calvo Serraller, former director of the Prado Museum and promoter of this cycle, which now bears his name, used to define Giotto, "the first modern artist or, in any case, the only one who has remained as such for the longest time, as no one has taken this title away from him for seven centuries".

A contemporary of framework Polo, Thomas Aquinas, Bocaccio and Dante, with whom he was close friends, Giotto was a figure without whose work, according to speaker, "it is impossible to understand the art of the 15th century, to which this course is dedicated, and which served as an inspiration for later artists". As he explained, "the beauty cultivated by the scholars, which is seen as a return to the style of the ancient painters, was based on the search for naturalism", a technique that Giotto developed with great mastery. "Giotto is not only to be compared with the famous painters of antiquity, but he should also be placed above them for his technique and talent. The authors of the time considered that painting had suffered a decline and needed to be reborn through the search for the natural and its reproduction, not only representing forms, but also movements, gestures and feelings, and Giotto did this practically from scratch".

Alberto Pancorbo, first speaker of the cycle

As Pancorbo stated, in Italy the recovery of Antiquity through the study of literary sources and Greco-Roman works gave rise to a true reinvention of visible reality: "Many scholars of the Renaissance said that Greece and Rome were the main champions of volume and Giotto rescued antiquity by recovering volume, perspective and a commitment to the natural". In this sense, he explained that in order to achieve a more truthful representation of reality, "Giotto sought the support of sculpture, as sculptors had a greater capacity to look at the direct works of Antiquity".

On the other hand, speaker has pointed out that Giotto developed the representation of space with great efficiency: "He worked with assistants, but reserved the most important figures for himself; fundamental elements for the construction of space. Although they may seem minor details, he was far ahead of other artists". Before concluding, he showed a work from his youth and another produced at the end of his period, assuring that "his evolution in the creation of spaces is evident, but also in his pictorial mastery". Finally, he quoted the historian Roger Price, who said that "Giotto is the most prodigious phenomenon that the history of art has ever known. Almost from nothing he was able to create an art capable of expressing the whole range of human expression".

The next session of the series will take place on Wednesday 2 February at 19:00 at the Museo Universidad de Navarra. Entitled "Rogier van der Weyden, pictore nobilissimo", it will be given by José Juan Pérez Preciado, from the area of Flemish Painting and Northern Schools at the Museo del Prado.

Alberto Pancorobo is graduate in Geography and History and holds a PhD in Art History from the Complutense University. He is currently in charge of department Activities of the Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado. He gives lectures at institutions such as the Prado Museum, the Camón Aznar Museum and Institute, the Pablo Serrano Aragonese Institute of Contemporary Art and Culture and the University of the Andes in Santiago de Chile. He also contributes to exhibition catalogues for the Museo del Prado - of which he is one of the authors of the Official Guide -, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente and the BBVA Foundation, and publishes articles in the magazines Arte y Parte, Cuadernos del IVAM, Descubrir el Arte and Claves de la Razón Práctica, among others. He is the author of the book Historia de la Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado (1980-2020) and curator of the sample "Cuarenta años de amistad. Donations from the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation".

Chronicle of the second session: Rogier van der Weyden, pictore nobilissimo. February2.

Chronicle of the third session: The sons of Leonardo and Laocoonte.From the Hernandos to Alonso Berruguete. 9 February.

Chronicle of the fourth session: Sandro Botticelli, between the profane and the sacred. 16 February.