European Ribbon

Introduction

Certainly, some of you hearing the name of this museum, must have wondered who the Prado family was. Here comes the surprise. In Spanish, Prado means meadow, and this colossal neoclassical building was erected on the site of former meadows. It was designed by Juan de Villanueva at the behest of King Charles III of the Bourbon dynasty in 1785, and the location was intentional. King Charles III awarded Paseo del Prado the title of the most beautiful promenade in the city, with numerous scientific buildings, lanes for carriages and horse-drawn wagons, and a central path for pedestrians. The future Prado Museum building was initially designed to house the Natural History Cabinet. That changed after the death of King Charles III in 1788. His grandson, King Ferdinand VII, influenced by his second wife, Queen Maria Isabel de Braganza, changed the building’s purpose, and renamed it to the Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures. Eventually, the National Museum of Paintings and Sculptures opened its doors to the public in 1819. The museum’s current name, Museo Nacional del Prado, was given after the abdication of King Ferdinand VII’s daughter, Isabella II, in 1868, when the museum was nationalized. Nowadays, the Prado Museum forms the Golden Triangle of Art alongside the nearby 🔗 Queen Sofia National Art Center Museum and 🔗 the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

Visit

Today, the Prado Museum is one of the most important painting museums in the world. Since its beginning, it has promoted Spanish art, among the art practiced in other European countries. The museum owes its rich collections to the Spanish monarchs, who were avid collectors of paintings. It includes collections from nearly all schools of art, spanning from the Middle Ages to the late 18th century. As you wander through its halls, you can sense dynastic preferences, political alliances, and rulers’ sympathies. For this reason, an encyclopedic arrangement of the exhibits did not prove effective at the Prado. Instead, they have maintained the original layout, guided by the orders and preferences of the monarchs. The first museum catalogue from 1819, exclusively featured Spanish art, with a total of 1,510 artworks. Currently, the collection boasts over 35,000 items among them sculptures, medals, coins, decorative art and over 8,000 paintings. Among the museum’s treasures, you’ll discover unique works by artists like El Greco, Bermejo, Velázquez, Goya, Titian, Bosch, and Poussin, as well as drawings by Michelangelo, engravings by Van Dyck, and Greek and Roman sculptures. Additionally, the Prado Museum includes two nearby buildings that are remnants of the Buen Retiro Palace. It was a vast palace complex commissioned by King Philip IV in the 17th century: the Cason del Buen Retiro and the Salón de Reinos (formerly the throne room of the Buen Retiro Palace).

It is impossible to enumerate the magnificence and value of the works housed within the Prado Museum, which we encounter as we move through its successive halls. However, let’s unravel one of the mysteries tied to Madrid’s memorabilia. It involves a beautiful shape inspired by Velázquez’s famous masterpiece, “Las Meninas” (also known as “The Family of Charles IV”). The painting immortalizes Infanta Margarita Teresa of Spain in the company of noble girls, all adorned in extraordinary dresses. They stand against the backdrop of her parents and Velázquez himself.