Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Museo del Prado is Madrid's premier tourist attraction and one of the 'must see' sights in Spain. It is one of the best museums in the world. Currently there are around 18,000 items in the Prado's collection including 8,600 pictures.

They are not any old common or garden pictures either - there are over a hundred Goyas and many by Rubens, Titian, El Greco, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Bosch, Velázquez and others. The Prado not only has the finest collection of Spanish art but also the most important works of Flemish and Italian painting as well as notable examples of the French, German and English schools.

It was originally founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture but it also has important collections of drawings, prints, coins, medals and other art-related items. 

Like all major museums, it is impossible to see everything on one visit so what are the 'must see' items. Personal taste must obviously influence what works of art the visitor chooses to see. However, many experts believe that Velázquez's masterpiece 'Las Meninas (Maids of Honour)' is the best painting in the World. Other 'top of the range' masterpieces include:

Bosch	'The Garden of Delights'
Brueghel	'The Triumph of Death'
Caravaggio	'David and Goliath'
Dürer	'Self Portrait'
El Greco	'Nobleman with a hand on his chest'
Goya	'Majas'
Raphael	'The Holy Family'
Rubens	'The Three Graces'
Titian	'The Bacchanal'
Titian	'Emperor Charles V in Mühlberg'

The Prado building is pretty impressive. It is an 18th-century neoclassical palace commissioned by Charles III in 1785 and designed by architect Juan de Villanueva. It was opened to the public in 1819 as the Royal Museum of Painting. Later, in 1868, it was renamed as the National Museum of the Prado.

 northern facade of the Museo del Prado
as painted by Fernando Brambila (1763 - 1832)

Velázquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez by Robert Bovington

Velázquez was one of the World's greatest painters and certainly the most important Spanish artist of the 17th century.

He was born in Sevilla in 1599 and it was intended that he follow a learned profession but he showed an early aptitude for art and so studied under Sevillian artists Francisco de Herrera and Francisco Pacheco. 

As a young man Diego Velázquez produced naturalistic still-life paintings such as bowls of fruit and earthenware jars where the objects portrayed were lit by strong light. During this early period he also painted some religious works.

Velázquez - 'Las Meninas'
location: Prado Madrid

In 1622 he travelled to Madrid and, soon after his arrival in the capital, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of King Philip IV. This led to Velázquez being appointed court painter to the Spanish Royal Family.

Following a visit by Peter Paul Rubens, in September 1628, Velázquez was persuaded to visit Italy to see the works of the great Italian masters. It was an enterprise that enabled Velázquez to appreciate Venetian art and, during a later visit, he painted a portrait of Pope Innocent X as well as the famous 'Rokeby Venus'.

Apart from two trips to Italy, Velázquez spent the rest of his life in Madrid. He produced lots of portraits of the Royal Family. One of his best known works is 'Las Meninas (1656)' - a portrait of the Infanta Margarita Teresa with her ladies in waiting. It is a curious painting and includes dwarfs and Velázquez himself painting the scene. It hangs in the Prado and is one of the most viewed paintings in the World.

Diego Velázquez died in Madrid in 1660 but his influence extended right into the 20th century because he was the inspiration to many later artists including Manet, Goya, Picasso and Dalí. Édouard Manet, in particular admired the works of Velázquez and called him the "painter of painters". Even Pablo Picasso paid homage to him when he recreated 'Las Meninas' in cubist form.