MUSEO DEL PRADO

Description

Essentials about the Museo del Prado in brief

The Museo del Prado is definitely one of the art museums in the world that even people less interested in art should have seen once in their lives. With over 8,200 drawings, 7,600 paintings, 4,800 prints and 1,000 sculptures, the “Prado” (as it is often called for short) is one of the largest and most important art museums in the world. The museum owns the most comprehensive collection of Spanish painting from the 11th to the 18th centuries, but also displays many works by Italian, Flemish and German masters. A multitude of masterpieces by Botticelli, El Greco, Goya, Hieronymus Bosch, Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian and Velázquez hang in the Museo del Prado’s seemingly endless galleries and halls.

The history and architecture of the Museo del Prado

The initiator of the Museo del Prado was King Ferdinand VII, who in 1815 wanted to create a picture gallery modeled on the Louvre in Paris. In 1818, the building of the Royal Museum of Natural Sciences in the Prado de San Jerónimo (meaning “Meadow of Saint Jerome”), built between 1785 and 1808, was misappropriated for this purpose and converted into an art museum.

On November 19, 1819, the Museo del Prado was inaugurated under the name “Museo Real de Pintura y Escultura” (“Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture”). The basis of the Prado’s collections were the royal collections, most of which were exhibited in the museum. Over the years, the holdings were expanded through private donations and acquisitions. Starting in 1971, the 19th and 20th century works were spun off to the Museo Reina Sofía.

Finally, in 2007, the Prado extension, designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, was completed, increasing the museum’s exhibition space by more than half and connecting to the main building through an underground passageway. The newly created areas include several halls for temporary exhibitions, the restored cloister of the Los Jerónimos church, a large entrance hall for visitors, an auditorium, and various facilities for the storage and restoration of works of art.

The exhibition in the Museo del Prado

The diversity of its collections and, above all, their high quality make the Museo del Prado one of the most important art museums in the world. The museum houses the most important collection of Spanish painting from the 11th to the 18th century. The most outstanding works are “The Shooting of the Insurgents” and the Black Painting by Goya, as well as “Las Menias” by Velázquez and “The Nobleman with His Hand on His Chest” by El Greco.

Besides the outstanding exhibition of Spanish masters, the Prado Museum also owns an impressive collection of works by German, English, Flemish, French and Dutch masters. Due to its great influence on Spanish Baroque art, Italian painting is represented with works by Fra Angelico, Botticelli and Caravaggio, among others. Works from the Venetian school by Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese are among the most valuable works of art in the Prado.

Because of the Spanish crown’s rule over Flanders, the Flemish school is particularly well represented in the museum, with works by the Brueghels, Hieronymus Bosch and Rubens. German, French and Dutch and German painting are also well represented with works by Dürer, Claude Lorrain and Rembrandt.

Originally, the Prado was intended to serve only as a museum of paintings and sculptures. Today, however, it also houses an important collection of drawings, prints, coins, medals, and decorative arts.