How many people do you find in this table?

The Prado Museum is now conducting a new study in which visitors ask in which table, than they host more characters.

According to legend, the young woman who would become St. Ursula, daughter of King Brittany Donatos, began in the fourth century from her homeland, Englandhaving in her company of eleven thousand virgins to cross the European continent. The reasons for her long journey are unclear and stumble between a consul or pilgrimage to Rome.

How many people do you find in this table?

However, their journey was to become a nightmare: when the crowded group of women arrived in Cologne, Germany, he was killed by the Huns.

Ursula became Saint and her companions employed the arts. A painting, St. Ursula with the virgins, created around 1490, was so impressive that the unknown painter who designed him was called « a teacher of 11,000 virgins », as Eli Wisevich of Smithsonian magazine typically writes.

Unfortunately, if you want to take a closer look at the table, which is at the Prado Museum in Madrid, to measure the women supposed to be depicted, you will be disappointed. On the table there are only 139.

For a table such as Agia Ursula with eleven thousand virgins, counting up to 139 is not impossible. But if you try to figure out how many people adorn the works of Dennis Van Alsloot, a court painter who worked for the Brussels aristocracy, « Celebration of the Ommegang in Brussels: Procession of the Guilds » and « Celebration of the Ommegang in Brussels: Sablon »The most likely scenario is not to succeed.

El Museo del Prado Pone a La Inteligencia Artificial A “Contar” Historias https://t.co/mplijo0r00 pic.twitter.com/IGYLI6FCGZ

– Museo del Prado (@museodelprado) April 8, 2025

The Prado Museum, which has been using artificial intelligence tools for years to upgrade the museum experience, is now conducting a new study asking visitors to which table has more characters. At a glance, both have large crowds. But with 1,761 people, it wins the population duel.

This calculation is the result of the new AI-based Prado initiative: under the name « Counting the Prado », the program is the result of the cooperation of the Cultural Foundation and Sherpa.Ai, a Spanish start-up artificial intelligence company that has « developed an algorithm capable of recognizing and counting artifacts and artifacts ».

« Parades, triumphant arrivals, diseases (and) celebrations » are precisely the types of events that AI model is designed to count, as Sherpa.Ai explains in its announcement. The purpose of the program is « to bring to life the museum’s collection in a creative and universal way, by identifying details in a selection of artworks where quantity, repetition or overcrowding are essential to the issue depicted. »

In 2019, the Prado Museum began using AI to provide more information on the history of various works of art. Employees hoped that these efforts would help visitors who are not experts to achieve « maximum understanding », creating a « multi -level timeline » that could be personalized according to the basic knowledge of the viewer.

*With information from: Smithsonian Magazine | Central Theme Photography: « Celebration of the Ommegang in Brussels: Procession of the Guilds » | Museo del Prado