Spain's Prado Museum renames paintings to remove 'offensive' terms such as 'midget' and 'deformed' after reviewing thousands of titles and descriptions to comply with disability law

The world-famous Prado Museum has changed the titles of many works of art
Painting descriptions have also been changed to be less offensive.
Employees of the famous institution examined approximately 30,000 items

Spain’s world-famous Prado Museum has undergone a major overhaul to ensure historic artwork complies with the country’s disability law, changing the names of paintings and changing their descriptions. Thousands of “offensive” terms will be removed.

As part of their review, Prado Museum employees examined the descriptions of approximately 27,000 paintings on the website and the signatures accompanying 1,800 works of art.

Paintings scheduled to be altered include “The Boy.” Velázquez’s Vallecas was painted in 1638 and depicts Francisco Lezcano from the Basque Country. Francisco Lezcano was known for holding a position in the Spanish royal court from 1634 until his death in 1649.

A sign explaining the painting previously read: “In addition to dwarfism, he suffered from ‘cretinism with oligoataxia.'”

“In addition to achondroplasia, he suffered from ‘cretinism with oligotaxia,'” it says.

Prado Museum employees examined the descriptions of some 27,000 paintings on its website and the signatures accompanying 1,800 works of art as part of the review.

Spain’s world-famous Prado Museum plans to rename paintings and remove thousands of “offensive” terms from their descriptions

T signVelasquez’s “Buffoon El Primo” is also edited. Previously it read: “This is one of Velazquez’s portraits of dwarfs.”

It says, “This is one of Velazquez’s portraits.”

“As an important institution, we have a duty to lead by example,” a museum official told the Times.

He added: “Given the political consensus, we have decided to re-examine, with sharper standards, any indications that may not have seemed out of place at the time they were written, but which have now been found to be out of step with the times.” I did,” he added.

The museum said it would not change the title of the “historic” work, citing the sculpture “Fasgot, Aunt Gila” created by legendary artist Francisco Goya, who also painted the famous “Saturn Devouring His Son” in the early 19th century. Stated.

However, two works of art by Rodrigo de Vilandrand and Juan van der Harmen y León, previously titled “Prince Felipe and the Dwarf, Miguel Soprillo” and “Portrait of the Dwarf” has been changed.

One removed the word “dwarf” and the other replaced it with “clown.”

Europe has been experiencing a publishing and arts crisis over the past year, with major institutions changing language and titles to woo younger audiences.

Last February, publisher Puffin Books came under fire for changing the wording of many of Roald Dahl’s books to soften what they called “derogatory language”.

The three-year process resulted in hundreds of words and sentences being deleted or changed, The Telegraph revealed at the time.

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