More than 150 of the surviving masterworks from the original show are collected and illustrated in this book.

    It not only describes the traditions as they are but also explains how they came to be.

    The contributors—museum directors, curators, and scholars in art history, folklore, history, and anthropology—represent a variety of stances on the role of museums and their function as intermediaries between the makers of art or artifacts and the eventual viewers.

    This book reproduces the jewels of the Prado's collection, gathered by the kings and queens of Spain.

    Much effort has been devoted to improving the presentation of the objects themselves, and even more to explaining their importance, their context and their relevance. This book is a critical examination of the techniques used today, their success or failure and the connections between recent work in museums and contemporary studies of text, meaning signs and symbols.