The Master of the Prado

Written by Javier Sierra

Narrated by Ralph Lister

Presented as a fictionalized autobiography, The Master of the 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 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jan 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781515971399

Javier Sierra

Javier Sierra tenia només vuit anys quan va començar a somiar a ser escriptor. Va publicar el seu primer llibre fa trenta anys, confirmant el que ja intuïa aleshores: que les lletres són una eina magnífica per resoldre misteris. Abans de guanyar el Premi Planeta amb El foc invisible, ja era l’únic autor espanyol que havia aconseguit que les seves novel·les arribessin al top ten dels més venuts als Estats Units. Amb El pla mestre s’enfronta ara als grans interrogants que plantegen els orígens, el sentit i el significat profund de l’art, novel·lant la pertorbadora influència d’una comunitat secreta que ens ha inculcat les seves idees des de la nit dels temps. Autor d’obres tan cèlebres com El sopar secret, El maestro del Prado, La dama azul o L’àngel perdut, la seva literatura es llegeix avui a quaranta-quatre països. Periodista i viatger, és fill predilecte de la seva ciutat natal i la biblioteca pública de Terol porta el seu nom.   Web: www.javiersierra.com X: @Javier_Sierra Instagram: @javiersierracom Facebook: JavierSierra.Fan

Reviews for The Master of the Prado

[gakgakg-887519 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I didn't finish this book and that is why I bumped it up to two stars. Maybe something well-written or interesting happened in the 180 pages I did not read. I am a Spanish major who studied in Madrid and took classes at the Prado during my time at the Complutense (all discussed in this book) and it was still so boring to me, I couldn't finish it. This book is almost a miracle- how is it possible to have many characters and no story? Many places but no setting? Maybe this book is a true work of art- but it's not something I could see. I felt like I was watching a painting show on tv where the guy paints for hours and then they turn the canvas around to reveal the painting and it's a stick figure holding a stick ice cream cone. My adored Prado and my beloved Madrid deserve a better book than this!

[brandiec-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.