Prado Museum Tour

Prado Museum Tour

This museum is one of the most important world’s art collections, equal both in quantity and in quality to such grand ones as Tretyakov Gallery, The Museum of Louvre or Vatican collections. In our time the exhibit rooms and store-rooms of Prado keep more than 6000 paintings, about 500 sculptures and creations of jeweller’s art.

The museum’s building itself, located on the territory of the park (having the same name), presents the masterpiece of neoclassicism. It was built in 1808. Initially, the edifice had to form the Museum of Natural Sciences, but the unstable international climate and the war with France had foiled these plans. So, for a long time the building was empty. In 1819 it turned to the Museum of Science and Art. For the first years of work it presented 311 paintings (mainly religious, as it was the most popular painting school at that time). Later on, all the rules helped to enlarge the museum’s collection, as they (as well as the church) were then the main keepers of art objects. Of course, Museo del Prado presents not only the works of Spanish painters.

Spanish school of painting of Museo del Prado is represented by such world-famous masters as Goya, Velasquez and El Greco. The museum represents El Greco’s paintings “Trinity” and “Epiphany”. Velasquez is presented by his masterpieces- the portraits of the royal family and the famous people of that age. The Italian art school in its´ Golden Age is widely represented by the works of Botticelli, Rafael, Titian, Sartre, etc.

The museum also keeps many famous paintings of the Flemish masters, such as Bosch, Rembrandt, Vandyke, and Rubens. Here you can see the famous pictures of Rubens “Adam and Eve”, “The rape of Europa” and “The three Graces”. The paintings of museum cover the period from the XII to the middle of XIX century.

Museo del Prado forms the part of “golden triangle” of the “must-excursions” in Madrid, along with Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Near Museo del Prado you can see a small but cozy church, the monument to the famous Spanish painter Fransisco Goya. Even people remote from pictorial art won´t remain indifferent to the works of art represented in the museum.

End of Tour

End of Tour