The Prado Museum

Art historian Jonathan Brown has said that “few would dare
doubt that the Prado is the most important museum in the
world for European painting”. There is no question that it
boasts the largest Spanish art collection and that its halls
house an astonishing and seemingly endless succession of
masterpieces by Raphael, El Greco and Rubens.

Monarchs and Emperors Classical Myths

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A large portion of the Prado Muse- For centuries Greco-Roman
1. Las Meninas. 1656. (Close-up)
um’s holdings originate from the mythology was the perfect Diego Velázquez.
painting collections of Spain’s mon- excuse for artists to depict nude 2. Prado Museum
archs. Court portraits thus abound. figures. Tales of gods and heroes 3. The Bacchanal of the Andrians. 1523 - 1526
Standout pieces include Titian’s made it possible to paint scenes Titian
The Emperor Charles V at Mühl- that would otherwise have 4. The Three Graces. 1635
Rubens
berg and the portraits painted by been precluded by morality and
5. The Washing of the Feet
Anthonis Mor, Sánchez Coello and decorum. There is no question
(aka Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples). 1548 - 1549
Sofonisba Anguissola for Philip II of the eroticism of Titian’s Tintoretto
and his family. The museum’s two “poems” – as they were called at 6. The Holy Trinity. 1577 - 1579
most iconic paintings, however, are the time – such as The Bacchanal El Greco
Las Meninas by Velázquez – a scene of the Andrians, or of many of 7. The 3rd of May 1808 or “The Executions”. 1814
2 Francisco de Goya
that depicts Princess Margaret, Rubens’ works, particularly The
8. The Garden of Earthly Delights. 1500-1510
daughter to Philip IV, surrounded Three Graces, a painting that was Hieronymus Bosch
by her maids of honour and jesters among his most prized posses-
© Madrid, Prado Museum
– and The Family of Charles IV by sions and for which his second
Goya. In both works the painters wife, Helena Fourment, posed. Religious Paintings
showed exceptional boldness, Velázquez also depicted multiple Particularly remarkable among the museum’s reli-
breaking an unwri!en rule by im- mythological themes, although gious pieces are Rogier van der Weyden’s The Descent
mortalising themselves alongside his intent was not to arouse the from the Cross and Fra Angelico’s The Annunciation,
members of the Royal Family. By senses but to offer allegories re- two prime examples of 15th-century European art, the
painting himself into the portrait, flecting on power and authority. first produced in Flanders and the second in Florence.
Velázquez asserts his own nobility The Spinners and The Feast of Worthy of special mention are the halls devoted to
as well as that of the art of paint- Bacchus (aka The Triumph of Venetian painting, which feature outstanding works
ing, as does Goya. Bacchus) are examples of this. including Tintore!o’s The Washing of the Feet, and to
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16th- and 17th-century Spanish art, where El Greco’s
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The Holy Trinity, Ribera’s The Martyrdom of Saint
Philip, Zurbarán’s Saint Elisabeth of Portugal and
Murillo’s The Immaculate Conception are displayed.

A Window to the Past

Through two of Goya’s paintings, The Executions and
The Fight Against the Mamelukes (aka The Charge
of the Mamelukes), we can relive the rebellion of
Madrilenians against Napoleonic troops in May 1808.
With these paintings, the artist changed the way the
genre of history was understood, giving it a much
greater immediacy. In the Prado's 19th-century halls,
you can also find some later pieces, such as The Execu-
tion of Torrijos and His Companions on the Beach at
4 Málaga by Antonio Gisbert Pérez. 5
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 Prado Thyssen-Bornemisza
Museum
Museum
In 1992, the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection arrived in
Villahermosa Palace. It reflects the tastes of the two men
chiefly responsible for assembling it, Baron Heinrich and Baron
Hans Heinrich, who were well-versed in central European ar-
Paseo del Prado, s/n tistic tradition. Since then the palace has been one of Madrid’s
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top museums, and the collection has been expanded with works
acquired by Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. 17th-century Dutch
museodelprado.es painting, 19th-century American painting, Impressionism and
the historical avant-garde are very well represented.
Monday to Saturday
10am until 8pm
Sunday and holidays
10am until 7pm Revolution of the Portrait Mua (In Olden Times), to the Wild
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There is a heavy focus on portrai- West, which was so aptly depicted
Dreams and Nightmares ture at the Thyssen-Bornemisza by the painters of the Hudson
Among the depictions of Hell and Paradise housed by the museum, Museum, with some outstand- River School, led by Thomas Cole.
Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights and The Haywain Triptych are ing Renaissance works such as This evocation of travel is even
particularly unique, due not only to the extreme meticulousness with Ghirlandaio’s Portrait of Giovanna present in one of the collection’s
which they were painted, but also to the dreamlike universe that they Tornabuoni and Carpaccio’s Young most famous pieces: Hotel Room
depict. Works by other Flemish painters, such as Patinir and Brueghel Knight in a Landscape, one of the by Edward Hopper. The painter,
the Elder, show a similar style. Centuries later and in Spain, Goya also first full-body portraits ever paint- who visited Spain during his
explored horror and fear in the Black Paintings that hung on the walls of ed. Also from the same period, but formative years as an artist,
his house, La Quinta del Sordo, which can now be viewed at the Prado. from northern Europe, are Hans acknowledged that his work was
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Holbein’s Portrait of Henry VIII enormously influenced by Goya,
of England and Robert Campin’s who he discovered in Madrid.
Portrait of a Stout Man. Among
the 20th-century portraits, pieces
like O!o Dix’s Hugo Erfurth with
Dog, Bacon’s Portrait of George
Science Dyer in a Mirror and Lucian
in Madrid Freud’s Reflection with Two Chil-
King Charles III wanted Madrid dren (Self-Portrait) show a strong
to be a leading centre of science. individual personality, although
To this end he commissioned the they are, in some manner, heirs to
construction of the Cabinet of Natural this same tradition.
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History, which is now the Prado

Museum, in front of the Botanical Around the World
Gardens. Neoclassical architect Through the works in the
Juan de Villanueva was chiefly
collection you can travel around
responsible for designing
the world in the space of a few
the complex.
metres: from Piazza San Marco in
Venice, painted in the 18th century
by Canale!o, to Rue Saint-Honoré
in the A!ernoon. Effect of Rain, as
it was painted in 1897 by Pissarro,
and from the landscapes of Tahiti,
the inspiration for so many of
6 Gauguin’s paintings, such as Mata 7
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