SHORT TAKES : Prado Velazquez Exhibit Opens

King Juan Carlos opened a retrospective of 17th-Century painter Diego Velazquez that has brought together more of the Spanish master’s works than even his royal patron possessed.

Juan Carlos on Tuesday toured the 79-piece exhibit that features 20 paintings of his royal ancestors, including Velazquez’s patron, King Philip IV.

In scope and size, the Prado retrospective dwarfs the exhibit that drew 550,000 people to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York last year. The one-time Madrid show is to run through March 30.

Organizers borrowed far and wide to add to the 48 paintings from the Prado’s permanent collection. The most important loans included “The Rokeby Venus” from London’s National Gallery and “Portrait of Juan de Pareja” from the Metropolitan.