The Master of the Prado: A Novel

Javier Sierra

Nov 2015 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

New York Times bestselling author Javier Sierra takes you on a grand tour of the Prado museum in this historical novel that illuminates the fascinating mysteries behind European art—complete with gorgeous, full-color inserts of artwork by da Vinci, Boticelli, and other master artists.

Presented as a fictionalized autobiography, The Master of Prado begins in Madrid in 1990, when Sierra encounters a mysterious stranger named Luis Fovel within the halls of the Prado. Fovel takes him on a whirlwind tour and promises to uncover startling secrets hidden in the museum’s masterpieces—secrets that open up a whole new world to Sierra.

The enigmatic Fovel reveals how a variety of visions, prophesies, conspiracies, and even heresies inspired masters such as Raphael, Titian, Hieronymus Bosch, Botticelli, Brueghel, and El Greco. The secrets they concealed in their paintings are stunning enough to change the way we think about art, uncovering mysteries about historical facts, secret sects, and prophetical theories. It is these secrets that lead Sierra to question his entire understanding of art history and unearth groundbreaking discoveries about European art.

At once a captivating novel and a beautifully illustrated reference guide to Madrid’s famed museum, The Master of the Prado is full of insights and intriguing mysteries. Sierra brings historical characters alive in this astounding narrative filled with dazzling surprises that will entrance you as much as the pictures within.

Ratings and reviews

2.5 stars I'm not sure what I was expecting from Javier Sierra's The Master of the Prado, but whatever it was, it certainly wasn't this. The Master of the Prado sounded, from the publisher's description, as if it were the literary equivalent of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, featuring a protagonist who discovers historical and supernatural mysteries hidden in plain sight in paintings by Old Masters. In The Master of the Prado, those artists include Raphael, Sandro Botticelli, Titian, Hieronymus Bosch, Brueghel the Elder, and El Greco, along with the lesser known Sebastiano del Piombo, Ambrogio Bergognone, Bernandino Luini, and Juan de Juanes. The book contains beautiful full-color reproductions of the works Sierra discusses with his enigmatic guide Dr. Fovel, which show up magnificently even on an e-reader. Unfortunately for a novel, however, the paintings are the highlight. The prose is pedantic - the visual analog of the stereotypical art history professor's drone in a darkened classroom; while I learned a couple of interesting things about Renaissance imagery, this is not why I pick up a novel. Sierra ably summarizes the entire 294-page book (excluding endnotes) in a single paragraph on page 184: "I now thought of [some of the paintings in the Prado] as tools built by extremely sensitive minds not at all concerned with achieving mere aesthetic pleasure. I'd begun to convince myself that the larger purpose behind these paintings - where their true meaning lay - had always been to keep open certain portals to the "other world." It was as if the art was simply keeping alive its original mystical mission dating back to the cave paintings in northern Spain some forty thousand years before. If Fovel was right, this was a secret that only those painters had known, perhaps along with some of their patrons. And now me." If that paragraph intrigues you, then by all means pick up a copy of The Master of the Prado; if not, the official museum guide published by the Prado is cheaper and can be purchased from its website. I received a free copy of The Master of the Prado through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

About the author

Javier Sierra, whose works have been translated into forty languages, is the author of The Lost Angel, The Lady in Blue, and the New York Times bestselling novel The Secret Supper. One of the most accomplished authors on the Spanish literary scene, Sierra studied journalism at the Complutense University of Madrid. El Maestro del Prado spent a year on the bestseller list in Spain, gaining the admiration of art experts, aficionados, and critics. A native of Teruel, Spain, he currently lives in Madrid with his wife and two children.