Featuring Diego Velázquez's Las Hilanderas, Thomas Struth's Museo del Prado 3 belongs to the artist's series of photographs taken in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Belonging to the artist's wider series of museum photographs where he captured tourists and members of the public interacting with some of the most well-known and renowned works of Western art, Museo del Prado 3 exemplifies Struth's innovative and thought-provoking approach.
In the photograph, the group of standing viewers seem to echo the framing of the painting without imitating it. In the painting, the layout is tightly constructed, a stage-like composition with a group of women weaving in the foreground. In the background are women in beautifully rendered gowns, viewing the woven tapestries. The painting is carefully arranged so that all the figures are visible, and no areas are overcrowded – the foreground and the background are also carefully balanced so that the viewer is directed from one section to the next in a natural progression. Struth’s photograph echoes this grouping of figures, although his looser, less formal approach results in a more spontaneous and, perhaps, more 'human' composition. The photograph is structured so that the painting in the background can easily be seen, although certain elements are interrupted by the figures grouped in front of it. Counteracting the rigidity of the pictorial arrangement of the painting, these subtle intrusions recenter the viewer and their interaction toVelázquez's work as the focus of Struth's composition. The standing group is ordered; however the figures are grouped close together and seem to be relaxed rather than posed – they all stand at different angles and four of the six figures are turned away from the camera. The result is a photograph which relays a real and relatable museum experience, and places the act of looking itself at the center of Struth's pictorial project here.
