Laura Cumming

The greatest.

The greatest painting of all time.

Yes.

It is, and I saw it without knowing I was going to see it, which is really how anyone listening to this program, if they can possibly go and just get this same experience I had.

My father had died.

He was a painter, and I was absolutely dejected, and I went to Madrid, and I had no idea what the Prado had in it.

I mean, I was very young, and I went to the room where it hangs in the Prado, and I didn't see it at first.

There was a crowd in front of it.

There's a crowd in this painting.

And the crowd started to move.

And for a very brief moment, and this kind of illusion of magic is part of the painting.

For a very brief moment, I thought the people in the painting were real people.

And I wrote a little account of how it struck me, which if you will allow me, I will read.

Yes, and what it first looks like.

You are here.

You have appeared.

Their eyes announced your arrival, all these people looking back at you, out of the shadows, the little princess and her maids with their ribbons and bows and their shimmering clothes, a tiny page and the tall dark painter, a massive dog and a lady dwarf.

The courtiers whispering or rapt or poised ready in the doorway at the back.

All these people are gathered here in this place for your presence.

They were waiting to see you and now you've entered the room.