The Art of Safekeeping

Preview: written before the show opened

When the Spanish court moved, its jewels and tableware moved with it, packed into travel cases and strongboxes made to measure from leather, fine woods and complicated ironwork.

Chests, caskets, coffers, trunks and cases come from Patrimonio Nacional's palaces, monasteries and convents, and the route splits them two ways. One half is practical: luggage and safes for a court on the move. The other is spiritual: caskets and reliquaries made to hold sacred relics at the major royal religious sites. You walk past pieces that differ in origin, size and decoration and share one job, keeping something safe. The court had a fitted case for its plates; you sit on your cabin bag to zip it at Barajas.

It is on Floor -2, in the Bourbons Hall (Philip V area), and comes with Gallery entry: €14, or €7 reduced. Entry is free Monday to Thursday from 18:00 to 20:00, holidays excluded, and a public session on the show runs on 10 November.