Sent in by Alexa Schriempf

Description

A small, highly unusual exhibition, “Touching the Prado,” designed to give the blind or those with limited sight an
opportunity to create a mental image of a painting by feeling it. The show, which runs through June 28, occupies a side passage of the museum, near a room that contains an original of another work copied for the blind: a version
of the Mona Lisa by a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci. Altogether, six 3D copies are on display, all of them rendering famous works in the Prado. They include Goya’s “The Parasol”; a still life by van der Hamen; “Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan” by Velázquez; and “Noli Me Tangere,” Correggio’s painting of Christ meeting Mary Magdalene.

The exhibition is one of the most sophisticated yet in efforts to unlock the beauty of the visual arts for those unable to see them. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery in London are among several museums that organize activities for blind visitors, including special guided tours, drawing classes, and “touch” workshops, in which blind people can feel sculptures. The Louvre in Paris also has a Tactile Gallery that contains
copies of some of its sculptures.

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