Museo del Prado

The Spanish national museum of art in Madrid, known as the Museo del Prado, houses the world's finest collection of Spanish old master painting, exemplified by Diego Velázquez, El Greco and Francisco Goya, as well as masterpieces from other schools of European art from the 12th century to the early 19th century, such as the Florentine and Venetian Renaissance in Italy, and the Northern Renaissance in Flanders, Holland and Germany. Although established originally as a gallery of fine art painting, the Prado (meaning 'meadow' in Spanish) also boasts important collections of drawings, prints, sculpture, coins and medals, as well as a host of decorative objects and jewellery.

Origins and History

Las Meninas (1656) (detail)
Diego Velazquez.

Initially commissioned by King Charles III in 1785 as a natural science museum, the neo-classical style Prado building was designed by the architect Juan de Villanueva and eventually finished in 1819 during the reign of King Ferdinand VII who opened it to the public as the Royal Museum of Painting. In 1868 it was nationalized and renamed the National Museum of the Prado. As the collection grew, the building was enlarged a number of times, most recently in 2007 when the Rafael Moneo-designed renovation started.

Subsidiary Galleries

During these enlargements several satellite venues were incorporated into the overall Prado complex, including: the Casón del Buen Retiro (housing 20th century art from 1971 to 1997), the Salon de Reinos, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (home to Dutch and German painting). Also in the area are two other Spanish museums: the Museo Arqueológico (to which part of the Prado's collection of ancient and classical antiquities was relocated) and the Museo Reina Sofía (20th century works).

The Collection

Initially, the museum's art collection consisted of religious-oriented Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque paintings amassed by the Habsburg and Bourbon Kings of Spain, including Charles V (ruled 1516-56), Philp II (1556-98), Philip IV (1621-65) and Philip V (1700-46). In the 19th century these collections were consolidated into the Prado, although latterly these have been somewhat dispersed for space reasons.

Works of Art

The Museo del Prado displays over 1,400 paintings, and its permanent collection also contains over 5,000 drawings, 2,000 prints, 700 sculptures in stone and bronze, including an outstanding range of Greek and Roman statuary, 2,000 decorative items, 1,000 coins and medals, and almost 2,000 decorative objects.

Spanish Painting

The collection includes a host of masterpieces by Spanish painters, including:

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660)
The Feast of Bacchus (1629)
The Forge of Vulcan (1630)
Christ on the Cross (1632)
The Surrender of Breda (1635)
Francisco Lezcano (1638)
The Thread Spinners (1644)
Las Meninas (1656)

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)
Christ on the Cross (1780)
Blind Man's Buff (1789)
Maja Vestida (Clothed Maja) (c.1800)
Maja Desnuda (Nude Maja) (c.1800)
Charles IV and his Family (1800)
Tres de Mayo (3 May 1808, Execution of the Defenders of Madrid) (1814)
Saturn Devouring His Son (1821)

El Greco (Domenikos Theotocopoulos) (1541-1614)
The Holy Trinity (1577–1579)
The Knight with His Hand on His Breast (1580)
The Resurrection (1600)

Bartolomé Estéban Murillo (1617-1682)
The Virgin of the Rosary (1649)
The Immaculate Conception (1670)

Jose de Ribera
Martyrdom of St Batholomew (1630)

Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664)
Still Life (1633)
Agnus Dei (1640)

Pablo Picasso's black & white masterpiece, Guernica (1937), was housed in the Prado after its return to Spain, but in 1992 was moved to the nearby Museo Reina Sofía.

Renaissance

The Prado contains numerous works by artists of the Early Renaissance, the High Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance, by artists like: Andrea Mantegna, Artemisia Gentileschi, Sandro Botticelli, Veronese, Antonello da Messina, Raphael, Caravaggio, including masterpices such as:

The Annunciation (1430-1432) by Fra Angelico.
The Deposition (1435) by Roger van der Weyden.
Self-Portrait (1480) by Albrecht Dürer
The Garden of Earthly Delights (1504) by Hieronymus Bosch.
Charles V at Mühlberg (1548) by Titian.

Baroque - Rococo - Neoclassical

The museum's collection of Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical painting includes works by Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Gellée, to name but a few, and the English school portraitist Thomas Gainsborough.

• For details of the development of painting and sculpture, see: History of Art.
• For a survey of art museums and venues in Ireland, see: Irish Art Galleries.
• For more information about visual arts in Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide.
• For details of famous painters and sculptors from Ireland, see Irish Artists.

• To update this mini-review of the Prado Museum, click here.

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