The enigma of the girl hidden in a Goya painting is revealed on TikTok

Why do the eyes of a hidden shadow look at us in Goya's painting La gallina ciega.

What is the best perspective to admire The Lavatorio de Tintoretto.

Or how Dürer and Rubens sign their paintings.

They are curiosities of works from the Prado Museum that not all visitors know, but millions of followers of the art gallery's social media accounts do.

“It is not about giving details of who painted each work, the date and the place.

What we want is for people to enjoy art, ”says Javier Sainz, head of social networks at the Prado Museum.

A project that has achieved more than three million fans and that places the Spanish institution at the digital forefront among the great galleries in the world.

Although the Prado had been participating in social networks for years, within the institution's strategy of disseminating its collection, popularity has accelerated with the pandemic.

"The numbers have skyrocketed," says Sainz.

The video that explains from where to watch Tintoretto's Lavatory so that the table follows the observer accumulates 1.2 million visits on TikTok.

And the one that reveals that the girl hidden in Goya's painting La gallina ciega was a character that the painter erased in the final version has 580,000 visits.

On YouTube, the museum closed 2020 with 13 million views.

They are "very interesting figures among an audience that is not a regular at the museum," says Sainz.

A little over a year ago since the public closure of the art gallery due to Covid-19, a closure that represented the longest period of suspension in its history after the Civil War.

The live video on Instagram of the moment the doors closed attracted 90,000 people.

It is an audience that is usually younger in age.

"By betting on Instagram and TikTok, it seems that a priori people are younger," says the head of networks.

A hypothesis that is confirmed with the type of comments and questions that are received, such as, for example, what do you have to study to be a restorer.

For everyone

In addition to opening age ranges, networks allow audiences to be globalized.

Sainz points out that only 28% of the followers come from Spain, with Madrid in the lead.

In addition to the Spanish capital, among the cities with the most followers there are many Latin American cities, such as Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile.

“We address a global audience, we try to be as accessible as possible.

For example, when we say hello we decide 'Good morning from the Prado Museum in Madrid'.

Not everyone has to know where we are, ”says Sainz.

The objective is to remove the fear that many people may have of a museum, explain how it works, give clues to attract attention and, if it is hooked, that each one can deepen the information.

That is to say, that the museum, whose headquarters is located in an imposing building from 1785, be seen with another look.

The key to success is in the content and focus on offer.

Like any pioneering project, there are those who criticize that the use of social networks could make the work of an institution like this become frivolous.

“We don't want notoriety for notoriety.

The objective is to make the museum known in the best possible way ”, he points out.

The networks "allow us to reach an audience that would otherwise be impossible, but we have to maintain our function of disseminating the collection rigorously".

One aspect that is given weight is interaction.

Every day, from Monday to Friday and ten minutes before the Prado opens its doors, works and curiosities are commented on from some room in the gallery.

The audience reaction is immediate.

“Sometimes”, says Sainz, “someone asks, for example, to focus more on the eyes of the character in a painting, or to explain a work again to understand it better”.

That daily contact with the fans "makes you touch the ground, know what the public thinks."

In this sense, we try to take great care of “the emotional”.

In addition, such a diverse community can contribute new things.

By having such a large audience there are experts in other subjects, such as plants or animals, who provide new information.

The virtual visit is not always a physical ticket

• Data.

  The Prado Museum does not have information on how many of the followers on social networks come to visit the building.

  Isolating the data, explains Javier Sainz, is complicated, although indications of a certain correlation can be seen, such as the comments of users in which they have a recent visit, or the perception of the room guards, who notice an increase in attendees when a video has been successful.

  "The feeling is that it does work," he says.

• Experience.

  However, Sainz clarifies that the main objective is not so much to bring people to the museum.

  "It is not all about attracting a physical visitor."

  Although it does try to improve the visitor experience, the institution is aware that they are addressing an audience that, perhaps, will never enter the building, as is the case, for example, of followers from distant countries, without means to travel.

• Subscribers.

  The museum focuses on the youngest networks, such as TikTok (where he opened an account in June 2020 and has 215,800 followers) and Instagram (814,000 followers).

  But it is also present on Twitter (1.27 million followers), Facebook (1.13 million) and YouTube (115,000 subscribers).

• Page.

  The Prado Museum website closed 2020 with more than 7 million users and so far in 2021 it already has almost 2.6 million.