
MADRID.- The display of The Victorious Hannibal at the Museo del Prado offers visitors an exceptional opportunity to see one of the most important and impressive works from Goya’s early career. Painted in the spring of 1771, it falls within a period not previously represented in the Prado’s rich and remarkable collection of the artist’s works. Through an agreement reached between the Museum and the Fundación Selgas-Fagalde to promote and disseminate their respective collections and the artistic heritage that these institutions house, Goya’s work is being shown at the Prado alongside his Italian Notebook, a sketchbook that he acquired during his time in Italy (1769-71). Among numerous other drawings and annotations, it contains sketches for the composition of The victorious Hannibal and its principal figures, namely Hannibal and the bull’s head of the allegorical figure of the River Po, which the Carthaginian general crossed. The painting was restored and studied at the Prado in 1993 and exhibited there from January to March 1994 in conjunction with the Museum’s acquisition of Goya’s Italian Notebook.