La vida secreta de los cuadros

The paintings hide messages that may go unnoticed, but often tell fascinating stories. Behind seemingly insignificant details lurk epics that changed the world, like the tiny peppercorns in a still life, the small pendant with a golden ram in a portrait, or the pigment that lends its color to a canvas. Or they contain clues that refer to the most fearsome network of spies, the passwords of Protestant "marketing" or the image and propaganda cabinet of the Hispanic monarchy, with screenwriters like Calderón de la Barca and creatives like Velázquez. Agustín Sánchez Vidal takes us from one theme to another and relates them to our daily lives and the present, from the orange color of carrots in a still life to Bugs Bunny, Freud and advertising; from King Midas to the current value of gold; from Bosch to Goya's black paintings or from the Immaculate Conception to a European Union divided between the "working" countries of the north and the "lazy" countries of the south. All this and much more is hidden in the paintings in the Prado Museum, which recount the history of Spain and its links with Europe.