The Museo del Prado is a museum and
art gallery located in Madrid; the capital
of Spain. It features one of the world's
finest collections of European art,
from the 12th century through the early
19th century. Founded as a museum of
paintings and sculpture, it also contains
important collections of more than 5,000
drawings, 2,000 prints, 1,000 coins
and medals, and almost 2,000 decorative
objects and works of art. Sculpture
is represented by more than 700 works
and by a smaller number of sculptural
fragments.
With over 8,600 paintings in the museum's
collections, the museum's world class
status is secured. The Prado has the
world's finest collections of works
by Spain's Diego Velázquez and
Francisco Goya, as well as of Dutch
painter Hieronymus Bosch (a personal
favorite of King Philip II of Spain).
The museum has collections of El Greco,
Peter Paul Rubens, Raphael, Titian,
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo.
Fine examples of the works of Melozzo
da Forlì, Botticelli, Caravaggio,
Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Veronese,
Hans Baldung, Fra Angelico, van der
Weyden and many other notable artists
are on display in the museum.
The best known work on display at the
museum is Las Meninas by Velázquez.
Velázquez not only provided the
Prado with his own works, but his keen
eye and sensibility was also responsible
for bringing much of the museum's fine
collection of Italian masters to Spain.
Pablo Picasso's renowned work, Guernica,
was exhibited in the Prado upon its
return to Spain after the restoration
of democracy, but was moved to the Museo
Reina Sofía in 1992 as part of
a transfer of all works later than the
early 19th Century to other buildings
for space reasons.
One of the main promenade entrances
to the Prado is dominated by this bronze
statue of Diego Velázquez.The
Museo del Prado is one of the buildings
constructed during the reign of Charles
III as part of a grandiose building
scheme designed to bestow upon Madrid
a monumental urban space. This "prado"
(meaning meadow in Spanish) gave its
name to the area (Salón del Prado,
later Paseo del Prado), and later still
to the museum itself upon nationalisation.
Work on the building stopped between
the conclusion of Charles III's reign
and during the Peninsular War and was
only initiated again during the reign
of Charles III's grandson, Ferdinand
VII. The structure was used as headquarters
for the cavalry and a gunpowder-store
for the Napoleonic troops based in Madrid
during the War of Independence. Upon
the deposition of Isabella II in 1868,
the museum was nationalized and acquired
the new name of Museo del Prado. The
building housed the royal collection
of arts and it rapidly proved too small.
The first enlargement to the museum
took place in 1918.
A war elephant from the church of San
Baudelio de Berlanga, on display at
the Romanesque chamberThe most recent
enlargement was the incorporation of
two buildings (nearby but not adjacent)
into the institutional structure of
the museum. The Casón del Buen
Retiro since 1971 houses the bulk of
19th century art. The Palacio de Villahermosa
now houses the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum,
the bulk of whose collection was originally
privately gathered and not part of the
state collection, but which well serves
to fill the gaps and weaknesses of the
Prado's collection; the Thyssen Bornemisza
has been controlled as part of the Prado
system since 1985.
