One of the most popular places in Madrid is the Prado National Museum of Painting and Sculpture, which is one of the largest in the world.
The museum began its history in 1775, when Charles III ordered the architect Juan de Villanueva to design the museum building. The museum got its name thanks to the Prado Park, in which it was built. Construction took about 20 years.
On November 19, 1918, the official opening of the museum took place, in which there were only 319 paintings. Since 1827, the museum has become the owner of the paintings of the Academy of San Fernando, which were once collected by Charles V, Philip II and Philip IV. In 1871, works of art that had previously been confiscated from various churches and kept in the National Museum at the Convent of La Trinidad moved to the Prado Museum.
When the civil war broke out in 1936, the museum was closed. To preserve his property, all were taken to Switzerland. On July 7, 1939, the museum began to operate again. True, at first the exposition was not complete. Many exhibits were exhibited in Geneva. All works of art were returned to Spain only at the beginning of World War II.
Now the museum has more than 8600 paintings. But, since the galleries are not that big, the permanent exhibition consists of only 2,000 exhibits, while the rest are in storage.
The collection of the Prado Museum has masterpieces in all genres of painting. The basis of the collection of Spanish paintings is made up of paintings by El Greco, Velasquez, Goya. There are also paintings by Spanish artists such as Francisco Zurbaran, Bartolome Esteban Muril, Alonso Cano and others.
Italian painting is represented in the works of Renaissance artists. The museum has works by Raphael, Titian, Botticelli, Veronese.
In the Prado there are also paintings of the Flemish and Dutch schools of painting, the prominent representatives of which are Peter Powell Rubens, Antoniv van Dyck, Hieronymus Bosch and others.
The museum periodically exhibits paintings from various collections around the world.
The Prado Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday. Tickets are sold directly at the museum's box office or online at the museum's website. Friendly and experienced guides are at your service. There is also a cafe "Prado".
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Every museum, and especially a national one, is always a kind of history textbook. We come to it to admire the exhibits stored here and, as far as possible, to delve into their meaning. However, these are just individual notes that make up a whole melody. You can hear it by imagining the museum as a whole, consisting of sometimes very different objects - that's when you can feel the course of history. It is not only and not even so much about the history of art and artists, but about those people who contemplated these works, classified them and placed them in the halls in a certain order. At the same time, their personal aesthetic perception was of great importance, as well as life circumstances, society with its form of government and political aspirations, faith, worldview, and, perhaps, how views of the world gradually changed. The collection of various objects and the ways in which they are exhibited to the public invariably bear the stamp of their era, and in this sense, museums always reflect the passage of time.
Certainly, the national museum is not at all a simple reflection of the totality of historical events. And yet, no matter how it is called, a truly national museum is only when it is deeply rooted in the history of the people. Thanks to this, even silence within its walls becomes eloquent, and lacunae can tell a lot.
The Prado Museum has relatively few works of Dutch painting, which in the 17th century wrote a very important chapter in the history of Western art (although there is Rembrandt's Judith at the Feast of Holofernes). At the same time, there are an unusually large number of paintings by Flemish painters of the 15th-17th centuries in its halls. There are also not very many paintings of the Italian Quattrocento, but among them there are true masterpieces, but the section devoted to Italy of the 16th and 17th centuries is of amazing quantity and quality, second only to the Spanish part of the museum collection. It is worth noting the outstanding works of French painting of the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries. And all this, we emphasize, is most closely connected with the history of Spain.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the National Prado Museum from the moment of its opening to the present day has always enjoyed special recognition and authority among all generations of Spanish society. This museum is one of those institutions that constitute the true heart of Spanish culture.
museum space. Monastery of Los Jeronimos, Retiro Palace and Salon del Prado Boulevard
In 1561, King Philip II decided to move the place of his permanent residence to the small town of Madrid. And this became the starting point for many different transformations, because now the city had to coexist harmoniously with the royal court. In 1570, the architect Juan Bautista de Toledo drew up a plan for the urban development of Madrid. It was implemented to a very small extent, but the very fact of its creation clearly testified to the intention to turn the city into a European capital. Of the few completed items of this project, one can name the alignment of the eastern borders of Madrid, as well as the improvement and landscaping of a special recreation area for citizens, which was located immediately outside the city walls - where the streets of Atocha, Huertas and Carrera de San Jeronimo ended. This zone, stretching along the course of the Fuente Castellana stream, which then flowed here, was bounded on one side by the fortress wall that surrounded the city, and on the other by the walls of the monastery of Los Jeronimos, which stood outside the city limits.
Jeronimos Monastery was founded by Queen Isabella the Catholic, great-grandmother of Philip II. Its building was designed by the royal architect Enrique Egas around 1500. Subsequently, Philip II instructed Juan Bautista de Toledo to renovate and expand this building, erecting royal chambers called Cuarto Real: there the king could rest, at the same time taking part in worship and monastic life. Since then, the meadow (in Spanish "el prado") between the monastery and the city wall has become the main resting place for the inhabitants of Madrid. One way or another, there was always a lively atmosphere here. In the comedies of Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca there are a number of scenes set in this very meadow.
In 1630, King Philip IV ordered the expansion of the already mentioned Cuarto Real: it turned into a whole palace, called the Palacio del Retiro. He joined other out-of-town royal residences. The new palace was located very close to the city, and the king, along with his family and courtiers, could hold balls there, and then return to spend the night in a permanent residence - the Alcazar. The Palacio del Retiro was of colossal proportions, and although its architectural merit was highly dubious, it soon became famous for its remarkable collections of paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and furniture, as well as its theater and exquisite garden. In this palace, the magnificent Salon de los Reinos (Hall of the Kingdoms) was created, which served both for balls, for court theater productions, and as a throne room. Its décor featured grotesque frescoes, luxurious furnishings in jasper, various marbles and bronzes, and a series of twelve large-scale paintings depicting the victories of the troops of Philip IV (including the Surrender of Breda by Velázquez). ). Two more series of paintings were added to this: ten paintings by Zurbaran on the theme of "The Labors of Hercules" and five equestrian portraits of members of the royal family. Today, all this is stored in the Prado Museum.
With the onset of the 18th century and the accession of the first representatives of the Bourbon dynasty to the throne, the Retiro Palace had a chance to experience a period of unprecedented prosperity. It so happened that on the night of Christmas 1734, a fire broke out in the Alcazar Palace, the old royal residence. And over the next thirty years, while the current Royal Palace was being built, it was Retiro that was the place of permanent residence of the kings Philip V, Louis I, Ferdinand VI and Charles III (in the first five years of his reign). However, when Charles III finally moved into the new royal palace, for Retiro this meant inevitable decline.
In 1808, Napoleon made his brother Joseph Bonaparte king of Spain (where he was called José Bonaparte), and for the next four years, the Retiro Palace, along with the garden and neighboring buildings, among which was the current building of the Prado Museum, served the French as a military camp and barracks, being a key point of their military strategy for the defense of the city. From the former palace, very little evidence has survived to this day, giving an idea of how huge and luxurious the entire palace complex was: these are Salon de los Reinos and Cason del Buen Retiro, where the library of the Prado Museum is now located. The vault of the library's ceiling during the time of Charles II was decorated with the main symbol of the Habsburg dynasty - the "Allegory of the Order of the Golden Fleece" by Luca Giordano.
The territory of the Retiro Garden and the meadows of the Prado de San Jeronimo survived the war hard times. For this whole part of the city, the reign of Charles III, an enlightened king who remained in the people's memory as "the best alcalde of Madrid", was of decisive importance. Around 1763, the architect José de Hermosilla, a well-known representative of the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism in Spain, began the restoration of the then Prado Viejo zone, which later became known as the Salon del Prado. What was behind the fortress walls turned into a landscaped city boulevard with monumental fountains, which were sculptural images of the goddess Cybele, Apollo (or the four seasons) and Neptune. They were also joined by fountains located on Huertas Street and the Alcacofa Fountain at the intersection of the boulevard with Atocha Street. In the same place, at the southern end of the boulevard, a hospital called Hospital General de la Pasion was erected according to the project of the architect Hermosilla, thanks to which the city expanded beyond the streets of Atocha and Santa Isabel. The construction of this building, which has become an architectural symbol of enlightened rationalism, was later continued by the architects Francesco Sabatini and Juan de Villanueva. And two centuries later, it turned into the current National Museum - the Reina Sofia Art Center.
In 1767, Charles III opened the picturesque garden of the Retiro Palace to the public, finally transforming it into a city park. At one end of the garden, on a hill very close to Salon del Prado boulevard, the king ordered the construction of the Astronomical Observatory, the design of which was created by Juan de Villanueva. Nearby, on a hillside, the Royal Botanical Garden was established in 1781, bordering the Salon del Prado, and a building grew nearby to house the Royal Office of Natural History and the Royal Academy of Sciences. Thus, parallel to the "boulevard of nature", which in fact was the Salon del Prado, the "boulevard of science and knowledge" inextricably linked with it stretched.
Building designed by Juan de Villanueva
The construction of the entire complex was entrusted in 1785 to Juan de Villanueva. This undoubtedly brilliant architect, educated in Italy, a brilliant draftsman, an outstanding intellectual and a unique figure in the Spanish Enlightenment, over the years of his career, created many different structures. However, his name is primarily associated with the historic building that houses the Prado Museum today. On May 30, 1785, Villanueva presented two construction projects, one of them was approved, and construction began on its basis.
The building consists of three compositional parts: the northern wing and the southern wing join the central volume on both sides. The side buildings have a square base and are topped with domed vaults. The central building is made in the form of a monumental basilica, the axis of which runs perpendicular to the rest of the building. The three spaces are interconnected by two long galleries.
In 1808, the Napoleonic troops under the command of General Murat took refuge in this building. By that time, all three facades and interiors of two floors with vaults, basements and roofs made of lead (subsequently confiscated by the French for the manufacture of ammunition) had already been completed here. During the four years of the war, the building was badly damaged, but already in 1814, construction work resumed. They were led by Villanueva's student Antonio López Aguado, who redesigned and strengthened the vaults, removing the load from them, and also added glass lanterns on the top floor. Very soon it became clear that there was not enough space here: there was an urgent need to expand the museum space. This task turned out to be difficult and was finally solved already in the 21st century, when the remains of the cloister of the former monastery of San Jeronimo and the building of Cason del Buen Retiro joined the museum.
Royal collection
Queen Isabella de Braganza, the second wife of King Ferdinand VII, played an important role in the creation of the museum - it was she who inspired him and promoted this initiative in every possible way. However, the queen was not destined to see how her idea came to life: she died eleven months before the official opening of the museum, which took place on November 19, 1819. In 1829, Bernardo Lopez, the son and student of the famous portrait painter Antonio Lopez Portagna, painted a magnificent posthumous portrait of Isabella. This work is not only a tribute to memory, but also an eloquent testimony to the extremely important role played by the Queen in the history of the Prado Museum.
At the time of the grand opening, there were 1626 paintings in the museum's funds. Of these, only 311 exhibits were put on display for the public, which were located in three halls. The museum opened its doors to visitors on Wednesdays, and on other days copy artists, fine arts specialists and those who had written permission could come here. In subsequent years, the museum's collection gradually increased. A significant number of works of art were brought here from various royal residences. For example, in 1837, 101 canvases arrived at once from El Escorial: there they were in danger, since the First Carlist War was going on in the country. A few years earlier, the museum received an even larger collection of paintings from the royal collection, which included images of nude figures. At one time, Charles III singled them out into a separate group and was even going to destroy them, but his son Charles IV managed to hide them in the storerooms of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Another significant and extraordinary event for its time is the appearance in the museum of the painting “The Crucifixion of Christ” by Velasquez. It came from the Benedictine convent of San Placido in Madrid, and its owner was the Duke de San Fernando de Quiroga. In 1829, the duke presented this work to King Ferdinand VII specifically to replenish the museum collection.
The year after the death of Ferdinand VII, who died in 1833, the first "Inventory and peer review of paintings and sculptures, as well as tables, vases and other objects stored in the Royal Museum" was carried out. This is the very first complete and detailed description of his collections. The reason for such an assessment was a circumstance that is very dangerous for the museum itself. The fact is that his collection was the private property of the deceased monarch and could now be divided between his two daughters and heirs - Queen Isabella II and Infanta Maria Luisa Fernanda. However, fortunately, the royal will stated that the collections were not subject to division. Therefore, in 1845, Queen Isabella, having reached the age of majority, paid her sister compensation equal to three-quarters of the estimated value of the collection. Later, in 1865, a law was passed according to which certain property, until then privately owned by the queen and inherited by her, was declared the property of the Spanish crown and, therefore, became indivisible and inalienable. The law also applied to the Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture.
A few years later, in September 1868, the so-called Glorious Revolution won in Spain, marking the beginning of the Six Years of Democracy. It was the first attempt in the history of the country to establish a democratic and parliamentary political system. The queen was overthrown and expelled from the country, and the royal property was declared the property of the state. Then the museum began to be called the National Museum of Painting and Sculpture, and it received visitors not only on Sundays and holidays, as before, but five days a week.
In 1870, the museum's funds received Goya, Bayeu and Castillo's cardboards, intended for the manufacture of tapestries (they were previously stored in the cellars of the Royal Palace and were repeatedly stolen). This was the last large-scale acquisition for the museum and the most significant in both quantity and quality. It was about the old royal collection, which two dynasties of monarchs, who were fond of fine arts, and especially painting, had collected over the previous four centuries.
The personal art collection of the kings, two of whom, Philip II and Philip IV, not only loved painting, but were also well versed in it, had a pronounced court, palace character. Therefore, the collection was special, to some extent incomplete: it reflected the tastes of its owners - refined, but no less subjective. A special group here is made up of ceremonial portraits, which were initiated by Titian, who created such brilliant works as "Emperor Charles V at the battle of Mühlberg" and "Portrait of Charles V with a dog." These paintings set a special, incomparable line in the Spanish court portrait, which found its highest expression in the masterpieces of Velasquez. King Philip II became the main customer and patron of Titian. Of the many paintings painted by the painter commissioned by the monarch, the Prado Museum stores two canvases from the cycle on the theme of Ovid's poem "Metamorphoses": "Danae and the Golden Rain" and "Venus and Adonis". They are joined by a significant number of portraits, allegorical images and religious paintings, which makes this museum the main source for the study of the mature work of the brilliant Venetian artist. An important role in the subsequent development of the fine arts in Spain was played by Philip II's passion for Flemish painting: the works of Van der Weyden, Patinir and Bosch that he collected became real landmarks in this sense. And the works of Antonis More and Titian served as the basis for the tradition of the Spanish court portrait.
The artistic tastes of Philip II, strongly associated with the richness of the colors of the Venetian and Flemish schools, further influenced the choice of his grandson, Philip IV, one of the most enthusiastic collectors in Europe, who was distinguished by his brilliant education and erudition. For the design of palaces, the Royal Alcazar, Retiro, and palace-type mansions, Torre de la Parada and Zarzuela, he used the services of Rubens, his court painter Velasquez, Flemish painters, including Van Dyck, Italian masters of that time, for example, Guido Reni Poussin and Claude Lorrain, who worked in Italy, as well as the Spaniard Jose de Ribera. The latter occupied a prominent place in the artistic panorama of Naples, which was then under the rule of Spain. In addition, the king acquired the outstanding works of the Italian Renaissance by Raphael and especially Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and other Venetians. "Bacchanalia on the island of Andros" and "Adoration of Venus" by Titian, "Do Not Touch Me" by Correggio, "Bringing to the Temple" by Veronese, paired paintings "Adam" and "Eve" by Dürer - these are just a few of the most outstanding examples. The son of this king, Charles II, not too favored by fate in many ways, having inherited the Spanish throne, was well aware of the importance of the art collection, which became one of the symbols of the Spanish crown. He carefully preserved it and enriched it, mainly due to the works of the great painters who worked at his court: Juan Carreno de Miranda (his works include the magnificent “Portrait of the Russian Ambassador Pyotr Ivanovich Potemkin”), Claudio Coelho and Luca Giordano.
At the very beginning of the 18th century, the ruling dynasty changed in Spain, and the royal collections of works of art began to develop in a new direction. Philip V and his wife Isabella de Farnese, who were distinguished by a clear penchant for classicism, acquired two large collections of ancient sculpture: one of them formerly belonged to the Swedish Queen Christina, and the other was collected by the 7th Marquis de Carpio in Naples and Rome. The new royal couple made a rich contribution to the pictorial collection of the Spanish crown, adding to it mainly the works of the artists of Italian classicism: the Carracci brothers, Orazio Gentileschi, Carlo Maratta and Nicolas Poussin, who was then working in Italy, as well as portraits by court painters who arrived from France - Michel-Ange Ouasse, Jean Rank and Louis-Michel van Loo. From this monarch, the Spanish crown inherited the extraordinarily valuable "Dauphin Treasure" - a magnificent collection of 169 items from the 16th-17th centuries, including glasses, wine glasses, dishes and cutlery made of crystal and precious materials. She passed to him by inheritance from her father, Louis, "Grand Dauphin of France."
An equally important contribution to the development of the art collection was made by King Charles III, who, before inheriting the Spanish crown, was Duke of Parma and then King of Naples. During the reign of this highly educated monarch, paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Anton Raphael Mengs arrived in Spain, which became a guide for the development of Spanish painting until the end of the 18th century, the royal tapestry manufactory, for which Francisco de Goya created cardboards at a certain period. The extensive royal collection included works by painters of the 17th century who painted their paintings in the style of classicism (Van Dyck, Andrea Vaccaro and others), as well as canvases by Dutch masters, which became a novelty in the art collection of the Spanish kings. Among the works of the Dutch, Rembrandt's only masterpiece, Judith at the Feast of Holofernes, kept in the Prado Museum, stands out. Added to this are the remarkable creations of the Spanish painters of the 17th century, including the works of Velázquez, Ribera and Murillo.
An equally brilliant role was played in the development of the art collection of the Spanish crown (which cannot be said about other areas) by the son of this king, Charles IV. His collection was distinguished by its eclecticism, but all the items in it were well chosen and stood out not only for their abundance, but also for their highest value. In addition to paintings, it included tapestries, porcelain, sculptures, bronzes, books, and musical instruments. Charles IV commissioned paintings from such magnificent Spanish artists of the time as Luis Meléndez and Luis Paret y Alcázar. In his richest collection, the "Portrait of a Cardinal" stands out - a masterpiece created by Raphael in the mature period of his work. However, the main thing that the collection of paintings of Charles IV is famous for today is the works of Francisco de Goya, whom the king made his court painter.
Trinidad Museum
The second significant source from which the collection of the Prado Museum originates is the Trinidad Museum.
In 1836, Minister Juan Alvarez Mendisabal signed a series of decrees, according to which religious orders were abolished in Spain, and their property, movable and immovable, was expropriated by the state. The provincial deputations were entrusted with the execution of these decrees, but at the same time, under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, a special Council for Confiscation was established. Under him, several commissions worked that traveled around the country and ensured that the confiscated works of art were sent to Madrid, where it was supposed to create the National Museum of Painting and Sculpture.
The museum opened its doors to the public on July 24, 1838, in the monastery of Trinidad Calzada on Via Atocha in Madrid, also alienated by the already mentioned decree. In fact, only a part of the confiscated items brought from a number of the central provinces of the country: Madrid, Avila, Segovia, Toledo, Valladolid and Burgos were collected here. Naturally, all these works of painting differed almost exclusively in religious themes. During the short period of existence of the museum, due to financial difficulties, it was not possible to ensure that even the minimum requirements for the content of the exhibits were met.
His collection, quite varied in quality, included some of the masterpieces that are today kept in the Prado Museum. For example, the exceptional pictorial ensemble created by El Greco for the main retablo of the church of the monastic college of Doña Maria of Aragon in Madrid. These works of the Cretan-born genius played an important role in his work, marking the final turn towards a more mature and deeply personal manner of painting. You can also name the "Triumph of St. Augustine" - a masterpiece by Claudio Coelho and one of the pinnacles of inspired Baroque of the second half of the 17th century. Particularly noteworthy is the dramatic statue of the "Penitent Mary Magdalene" by Pedro de Mena, which comes from the Jesuit church in Madrid.
In 1868, a revolution took place in the country, and on November 25, 1870, the government issued a decree merging the Trinidad Museum and the Prado Museum into one institution, which became known as the National Museum. However, this initiative was not accompanied by the necessary measures to ensure its activities. Meanwhile, the new museum needed premises; in the exhibition halls and storerooms were not created all the conditions for the storage of funds; lacked financial, material and human resources. Therefore, when 1,733 items were immediately brought into the already overloaded storerooms, there were serious problems with preservation, placement and even security: they remained in the Prado Museum for a long period of time.
It was then that a solution was found, which over the years of the further history of the museum was used repeatedly and quite often. A significant number of works of art began to be deposited in various provincial museums, official bodies, state institutions and charitable foundations scattered throughout the country, as well as in the very monasteries from which they originated. This is how the concept called "Prado disperso" (that is, the Prado Museum scattered throughout the country) was born. About 3,000 of the most diverse works, including those of exceptional artistic value, such as the "Departed Christ" by Gregorio Fernandez, are today in the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid. Another series of paintings created by Vicente Carducho for the Carthusian monastery of Paular in the village of Rascafria near Madrid was recently returned there after restoration in museum workshops.
New acquisitions. Prado Museum in the 20th century
Since the establishment of the National Prado Museum, a third group of works of art has gradually begun to form here, which has been called the "New Acquisitions". Unlike the two earlier parts of the collection, these came from very different sources. The only common feature that unites them is the date they entered the museum after 1871. This includes, first of all, the award-winning exhibits of the National Exhibitions of Painting and Sculpture, which began to be held in 1856. The state bought these best works and sent them to the Trinidad Museum until 1871, and later to the Prado Museum. In 1894, the Museum of Modern Art was established and the works of the 19th century kept in the Prado Museum were attributed to this new institution. However, in 1971 they returned here again. By that time, the Museum of Modern Art had not existed for twenty years, and in its place was the new Spanish Museum of Modern Art (the immediate predecessor of the current National Museum, the Reina Sofia Art Center). Then it was decided to divide the existing collections and, in particular, to return to the Prado works dating back to the 19th century. Together with other objects acquired through various channels, they form a fairly complete and extensive collection of 19th-century paintings, mainly Spanish. It should be noted at the same time that the Prado Museum played a very important role in the development of the Spanish fine arts of that period. Let us look, for example, at such outstanding and so different paintings as Isabella the Catholic Dictating Her Will by Eduardo Rosales or The Execution of General Torrijas and His Companions on the Beach in Malaga by Antonio Hisbert. They clearly show a masterful composition, the ability to convey a psychological portrait, and a particularly skillful use of a color palette as a means of creating a general atmosphere. All this is undoubtedly due to the genius of the authors, but also due to the conscientious study of the works of Velasquez and Goya, exhibited at the Prado Museum.
In addition to this group of works of art, the collection of the "New Acquisitions" section was gradually replenished through wills, gifts and purchases. At the same time, either the museum itself or the Spanish state acted as a buyer, which then transferred them to the museum collection. And since 1980, the newly created Fund of Friends of the Prado Museum joined the work. One way or another, new arrivals today account for about 20 percent of all items stored here. And this is certainly admirable, given that the Spanish government, as a rule, does not show much interest in private individuals bequeathing or donating their collections to the museum. We should also not forget that the museum is forced to constantly work in conditions of austerity, and sometimes endure outright need. It is impossible in a nutshell to summarize here the whole history of new acquisitions, which came literally drop by drop. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to mentioning some of the most notable receipts.
Among the very first major gifts (as well as among the most important), the so-called "Gloomy Paintings" by Francisco de Goya, which Baron Frederic Emil d "Erlanger presented to the museum, stand out. These were wall paintings created by the artist in his own house in the outskirts of Madrid , called Quinta del Sordo ("Manor of the Deaf"). He lived there before leaving for France in 1824, hiding from possible persecution of the new government. D "Erlange bought the estate in 1873 and instructed the craftsmen to transfer the murals , which were not in the best condition, from the walls to canvases. Fourteen of the resulting paintings, the baron put up for sale during the World Exhibition in Paris, held at the Trocadero Palace in 1878. However, to the surprise of this banker and connoisseur of art, there was no buyer for them. So in the end, in 1881, he donated them to the Spanish state specifically for the Prado Museum. Here, too, they were not highly appreciated and were put on display to the public only in 1890.
The fate of this series, truly unique in the history of Western painting, testifies to the fact that Goya's art was not immediately accepted and understood: this process turned out to be difficult and long, not only at the international level, but also in Spain itself. Suffice it to say that until that moment the work of the brilliant artist was represented in the halls of the museum very little. Although then, throughout the entire twentieth century, mainly thanks to purchases and donations, all new works by Goya came here, so that gradually they formed the core of the collection. At the moment, the Prado Museum has collected more than half of all the numerous creations of this painter known to us.
The development of the country as a whole was also reflected in the history of museum receipts received as a gift or by will. Thus, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, representatives of the highest aristocracy played the main role in this process: thanks to them, large family collections arrived at the museum, which included both real masterpieces and secondary works. Among the most outstanding examples are the gift of Maria Dionisia Vives y Sires, Dowager Duchess de Pastrana, in 1889, more than two hundred works of art, among which a group of commissioned sketches by Rubens for the Torre de la Parada pavilion stand out. King Philip IV. In 1894, the Dowager Marquise de Cabrignana donated 26 paintings to the museum, including Hans Memling's Madonna and Child with Angels, a beautiful piece of board work. And in 1905, the Duchess de Villahermosa changed her mind about selling two paintings by Velasquez and presented them as a gift to the museum "so that they would not leave the territory of Spain." However, already at the beginning of the new century, large entrepreneurial collectors confidently come onto the scene. One of them, Ramón de Errazu, a Mexican of Basque origin, who was educated and settled in Paris, bequeathed twenty-five magnificent paintings of the 19th century to the museum in 1904.
After the restoration of the monarchy, when the Bourbon dynasty reigned on the throne again, one of the most important events in the history of the museum was the creation in 1912 of a collegiate governing body - the Royal Board of Trustees of the National Museum of Painting and Sculpture, which since 1920 was officially renamed the National Prado Museum. The council played a crucial role in the process of transforming this institution into a historical and artistic research center. Previously, according to tradition, it was believed that the director here should be an artist, but now, in order to take this position, one had to have knowledge of the history of art.
In 1915, the Catalan financier Pablo Bosc, who was a member of the Board of Trustees, bequeathed to the museum more than ninety works of Flemish and Spanish painting, a magnificent collection of medals from all over Europe dating from the 15th-19th centuries, another collection of 946 coins, as well as a significant amount of money. No less impressive was the contribution of Pedro Fernandez Duran, who donated and bequeathed paintings by Flemish and Spanish masters, including Van der Weyden, Morales and Goya, almost 2800 drawings of various European schools of the XV-XIX centuries, many sculptures, furniture, armor, tapestries and fabrics.
The military mutiny of July 18, 1936 became the starting point of one of the most tragic periods in the history of Spain. The outbreak of the Civil War lasted three years, and almost all this time the capital was under siege. Due to prolonged and intense bombing, its cultural heritage and, in particular, the Prado Museum, were in danger. On November 5, 1936, the government ordered all the masterpieces stored in it to be transported to Valencia. The operation lasted until February 1938: in twenty-two flights, 391 paintings, 181 Goya drawings and the entire Dauphin Treasure were taken out of Madrid. From Valencia in March 1938, all this was transported to Barcelona, \u200b\u200bdamaging two large-scale paintings by Goya on the way: “The shooting of the rebels in Moncloa” and “The uprising of May 2, 1808 in Madrid”, while the latter suffered more seriously. Then the path of the collection lay in the direction of the French border, on the outskirts of which it was handed over to representatives of the International Committee for the Rescue of the Treasures of Spanish Art. Priceless creations were evacuated to the headquarters of the League of Nations in Geneva, where they arrived on February 14, 1939. And already on March 30, the day before the end of the Civil War, the League of Nations returned them to the new Spanish government, which almost immediately allowed to organize an exhibition of Prado Museum masterpieces in the Geneva Museum of Art and History in July and August. The visitors were offered masterpieces by Velasquez, Goya, El Greco, Titian, Bosch, Durer and others. Thus, the most dangerous period in the entire history of the Prado Museum ended with one of the most significant events in the history of European culture and museums of the twentieth century. On September 5, two days after the outbreak of World War II, the artworks were sent back home to Madrid.
Shortly thereafter, the Prado Museum received two donations in which everything was exceptional: both the personality of the donors, the quality of the donated works, and the surrounding circumstances. A Mexican artist and entrepreneur who owned his own gallery donated seven antique sculptures to add to the museum's small but excellent collection of classical sculpture. And two years earlier, Francesc Cambo - an entrepreneur, lawyer, politician and supporter of Catalan autonomy, who found himself in exile - presented and sent from Switzerland eight paintings of the Italian trecento and quattrocento, painted on boards (among them, three stand out from the series "Novella about Nastagio degli Onesti" by Botticelli), as well as a magnificent still life by Francisco de Zurbaran.
Another significant fact: in 1943, from the funds of the National Treasure of Spain, the museum received three masterpieces that came from the collection of Philip II, and one from the art collection of Philip IV. All of them were kept in the monastery of El Escorial, and in the era of the Republic they were actually transported to the museum. These are Bosch's masterpieces - a table depicting the Seven Deadly Sins and the triptych The Garden of Delights - as well as the Descent from the Cross, which became the pinnacle of Rogier van der Weyden's work, and one of the main works of the young Tintoretto, The Washing of the Feet.
In 1947, the Prado Museum received very important exhibits - Romanesque wall paintings transferred from the Maderuelo chapel. They belong to that period in the history of art, which until then was not presented in the museum. Added to this in 1957 were six Romanesque frescoes from the church of San Baudelio de Berlanga, which were removed from the walls in 1922 and smuggled into the United States. They returned to Spain thanks to an agreement with the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art on the mutual exchange of exhibits from permanent funds. In the following decades, the Prado Museum received very few new objects, among which is the work of Antonello da Messina "Dead Christ Supported by an Angel", executed on a board - without a doubt, one of the masterpieces of the collection.
In 1981, one of the symbolic events in the history of Spain in the 20th century took place: Picasso's Guernica arrived at the Prado Museum, along with 63 sketches and preparatory drawings. They were soon joined by other works by Picasso and Juan Gris, donated to the museum by Douglas Cooper, and paintings by Joan Miró from the artist's widow. All of them were exhibited in the building of the Cason del Buen Retiro, joining the 19th century collection.
Picasso painted "Guernica" commissioned by the Republican government for the Spanish pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. After the end of the Civil War, the artist, who was a member of both the French and Spanish communist parties, decided to deposit the painting in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Picasso did not at all deny that the Spanish government was the legal owner of Guernica, and personally wished that she would eventually end up in the Prado Museum. However, he ordered that the canvas not cross the border of Spain until a democratic form of government was established here. Therefore, the arrival of this European icon of the 20th century had a symbolic meaning, marking a complete change in the historical course in the country in the last third of the 20th century. Later, the painting was transferred to the fund of the National Museum - the Reina Sofia Art Center.
Another entry stands out in particular, both in terms of its value and the way it ended up in the museum. We are talking about the "Portrait of the Marquise of Santa Cruz" by Francisco de Goya, illegally exported from Spain in 1983 and put up for auction in 1985. The Spanish state managed to suspend the sale of the portrait at the Christie's London auction. After paying the owner $ 6 million, collected with wide public support in Spain, the portrait was returned and was exhibited at the Prado Museum.
Even in such an extremely brief description of the history of the museum, one cannot fail to mention Manuel Villaescus. This Madrid lawyer and businessman, who died in 1991, bequeathed to the museum his vast fortune, including real estate and business interests, on the condition that the proceeds be used to acquire first-class works of world art. The legacy turned out to be so significant that a special commission had to be created to study the possibilities of acquiring artifacts. Taking advantage of his legacy, the Prado Museum over the following years, until 1998, acquired more than two hundred paintings, drawings and engravings.
It is also worth mentioning the Servelho Library, which was transferred to the museum's funds in 2002 thanks to a well-chosen combination - a combination of purchase and donation. The library includes more than two thousand of the most valuable books of the 16th-19th centuries, and it was collected by José Maria Servelho. Having become a true model of the modern humanist, Servello collected it from a young age with the intention of someday giving these volumes to the Prado Museum.
Despite the fact that the Spanish financial legislation until today provides very little benefits and incentives, the Prado Museum still receives largesse from individuals, periodically receiving works of art as a gift. Recently, the most important receipts have been from the Marquise Balboa in 2002, from the Barcelona entrepreneur José Luis Vares Fisa, and most recently from Plácido Arango. Vares Fisa donated to the museum in 2013 twelve Romanesque, Gothic, Spanish-Flemish and Castilian Renaissance paintings, as well as two Gothic sculptures and a large coffered ceiling dating from around 1400. All this was in addition to two other significant works that the businessman donated to the museum in previous years. One of the last major purchases of the Prado Museum comes from his own collection - the Sarsoso Triptych, exceptional from an artistic point of view. For his part, Placido Arango in June 2015 donated to the museum 24 paintings from his collection of Spanish paintings of the 16th-19th centuries.
And finally, in conclusion, it is worth at least briefly mentioning such purchases as the "Portrait of the Comtesse de Chinchon" by Francisco de Goya, acquired in 2000 (partly thanks to the last remaining funds bequeathed by Villaescusa), the painting by Pieter Brueghel the elder "Wine in Saint Martin's Day" and the recently purchased small board "A Prayer in the Garden", created by Colarte de Laon around 1405, is a world-class masterpiece of French Gothic.
Being in Madrid and not going to the Prado is an unforgivable mistake of a novice tourist. In terms of the concentration of masterpieces, this museum overtakes such well-known repositories as the Louvre, the Hermitage or the National Gallery in London. The collection of Spanish painting of the XV-XVIII centuries is especially rich.: El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Murillo, Zurbaran. Each picture is a story about the history of Spain, its rulers, its traditions and culture.
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In Prado, you will not find chic interiors with gilded stucco on the ceiling. The interior of the museum is simple and unobtrusive. Therefore, the impression of paintings and sculptures is especially vivid.
Historical facts
The first of the Spanish monarchs, who came up with the idea of collecting paintings, was Charles V. In the 16th century, high art was called upon to delight the eyes of the nobility and members of the royal family. But a start had been made. The following monarchs did not want to be known as rude and unrefined, the collection was replenished.
By the 18th century, a special room was required where paintings and sculptures could be shown to everyone. King Charles III of Spain ordered the creation of a sketch for the Museum of Natural History, which was destined to become the most famous art museum in Spain. ten years later a place was found near the Prado park. The name of the park soon "stuck" to the new institution, which is officially called the Prado National Museum.
The museum opened only in 1819. At first, Spanish slowness interfered, then the Napoleonic wars (the gallant French set up a stable in the unfinished building of the gallery).
At the time of opening, the museum represented Spanish art of the 12th-18th centuries. Throughout the 19th century, grandees, artists, and famous collectors bequeathed their collections to the museum. The collection grew from year to year. Soon, in addition to the works of Spanish masters, works by other European masters appeared in the museum's collection.
The 20th century gave the keepers of the Prado Museum in Madrid a lot of trouble. During the civil war, many works were taken out of the country and placed in storage in museums in Switzerland. The paintings returned to Spain in 1940.
Now in the museum more than two million tourists visit each year. The works of such masters as Zurbaran, Murillo, Velasquez, Goya, Ribera, El Greco are presented here most fully. And the presence in the exhibition of works by Titian, Botticelli, Raphael, Bosch, Brueghel, Dürer, Rubens and Van Dyck make the institution the most significant cultural attraction in Spain.
Among the exhibits of the Prado Museum are not only paintings, but also sculptures.
Javier Sierra and his book "Master of the Prado Museum"
No matter how regrettable the admirers of the talent of the writer Javier Sierra, his popular book is nothing more than a fantasy. A skilled journalist masterfully manipulates the reader, mixing historical research with the fruits of his wild imagination.
Writer Javier Sierra.
The book about the secrets of the Prado paintings was a disaster for historians and a joy for museum workers. There are more and more people who want to see the magical paintings of Bosch, El Greco and Da Vinci with their own eyes. The reading is entertaining, even exciting, but there is little truth and reality in the writings of Javier Sierra.
What to see first?
In the collection of the Prado Museum more than 8 thousand paintings and over 400 sculptures. The exhibition area of the museum allows you to show no more than 2 thousand paintings and about a hundred sculptures. Everything else is stored in storerooms and is rarely exhibited, in special halls. To see everything, one tour of the museum is not enough. Therefore, the keepers came up with a "hint" for all visitors to the institution. In the free map of the museum, which every visitor receives (it also contains information in Russian), there is a description of 15 masterpieces for a mandatory inspection. The map shows the path to all 15 paintings.
You can trust the professional taste of the museum staff, or you can study the scheme on your own and choose the halls with the most interesting exhibits.
There are several works in the museum that are difficult to get to because of the constant crowd of people who want to see them:
- Velasquez "Las Meninas";
- El Greco "Portrait of a Caballero";
- Bosch "Garden of Delights";
- Rubens "Three Graces".
Bosch - Garden of Delights.
These four works can become the main reference points for those who visit the museum for the first time. If you are guided by the map of the museum, then finding all the paintings is not difficult. In the free scheme, you can see the theme of each hall of the museum and choose what interests you the most. It is impossible to see the entire collection of the museum in one day..
Find and see a copy of the famous "Mona Lisa" made by a student of Leonardo da Vinci. With external similarities, the work does not have the mystery and depth that made the original the greatest masterpiece of painting, but the interest in this work is huge.
Practical information and visiting rules
Finding the Prado Museum is quite simple, it is located in the very center of Madrid:
- Atocha metro stop- you can get directly from the airport. From here to the museum a few hundred meters, signs with the inscription "Museo del Prado" will help.
- Buses - 9, 10, 14, 19.
- Near the museum there is a parking lot for tourist buses, not far from Cybele Square, the famous Retiro Park.
The building of the museum can be seen from afar, it is majestic and monumental, like everything else in Madrid.
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Museum opening hours: from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm(on Sundays and holidays the museum closes one hour earlier).
Three days a year (January 1, May 1 and December 31) Prado does not receive visitors. And on January 6, December 24 and 31, it is open only until two hours.
The price of a regular ticket, which provides entry and viewing of the main exhibition, is 14 euros. Children under 18 are exempt from the fee. Students with an international ticket have a 50% discount.
You can buy a ticket at the Prado box office and on the museum's home page. But do not rush to spend money. Every day, tourists have the opportunity to visit the Prado for free. Two hours before the closing of the institution, the ticket office of the museum issues free tickets to everyone. By this time, an impressive queue is gathering at the museum. Do not be afraid of this, the queue melts very quickly (15-20 minutes).
To use the audio guide you need to pay 3.50 euros. The free map contains a description of the main masterpieces, the audio guide is useful for those who are truly interested in painting.
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Each visitor to the Prado undergoes strict control. Bags, umbrellas, backpacks must be left in the cloakroom.
In the museum photography is prohibited, but the staff turns a blind eye to this ban. Only owners of large cameras will have to hand them over. Visitors actively take pictures with phones and tablets.
The museum has a good cafe, which will be useful for those who want to spend the whole day in the Prado.
Each visitor can leave written or oral feedback about visiting the museum, for this there are several electronic devices at the exit.
After a cultural holiday, you can switch your attention to others. In the main city of Spain, there is entertainment for both active tourists and lovers of quiet leisure.
Diego Velazquez. Meninas (detail). 1656 Prado Museum, Madrid
I started my acquaintance with the Prado Museum with a book gift edition. In those ancient times, wired Internet was just a dream, and it was more realistic to see the works of artists in printed form.
Then I learned that the Prado Museum is considered one of the most outstanding museums in the world and is one of the twenty most visited.
There was a burning desire to visit it, although at that time a trip to Spain seemed something unattainable (I moved exclusively by trains, even if it took two days to travel from one city to another! The plane was too luxurious a means of transportation).
However, 4 years after purchasing the book about the museum, I saw it with my own eyes.
Yes, I was not disappointed. I was especially struck by the collections of Velasquez, Rubens, and. In general, this museum has something to impress a lover of painting.
1.Francisco Goya. Milkmaid from Bordeaux. 1825-1827
Francisco Goya. Milkmaid from Bordeaux. 1825-1827 Prado Museum, Madrid.Goya painted the picture "The Milkmaid from Bordeaux" in the last years of his life, when he was already living in France. The picture is sad, minor and at the same time harmonious, concise. For me, this picture is the same as listening to a pleasant and light, but sad melody.
The picture was painted in the style of impressionism, although half a century will pass before its heyday. Goya's work seriously influenced the formation of the artistic style of and.
2. Diego Velasquez. Meninas. 1656
Diego Velazquez. Meninas. 1656 Prado Museum, Madrid “Las Meninas” by Velasquez is one of the few custom-made family portraits, during the creation of which no one limited the artist. That is why it is so unusual and interesting. Only he could behave like this: after 150 years he painted, also allowing himself liberties, albeit of a different kind.
And what is actually interesting in the plot of the picture? The alleged protagonists are behind the scenes (the royal couple) and are displayed in a mirror. We see what they see: Velasquez painting them, his workshop and his daughter with maidservants, who were called meninas.
An interesting detail: there are no chandeliers in the room (only hooks for hanging them). It turns out that the artist worked only in daylight. And in the evening he was busy with court affairs, which greatly distracted him from painting.
3. Claude Lorrain. Departure of Saint Paula from Ostia. 1639-1640 Hall 2.
Claude Lorrain. Departure of Saint Paula from Ostia. 1639-1640 Prado Museum, Madrid. I first met Lorrain in ... a rented apartment. There hung a reproduction of this landscape painter. Even she conveyed how the artist knew how to depict light. Lorrain, by the way, is the first artist who thoroughly studied light and its refraction.
Therefore, it is not surprising that, despite the extreme unpopularity of landscape painting in the Baroque era, Lorrain was nevertheless a famous and recognized master during his lifetime.
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4. Peter Paul Rubens. Judgment of Paris. 1638 Room 29.
Peter Paul Rubens. Judgment of Paris. 1638 Prado Museum, Madrid. The Prado Museum houses one of the most significant collections of Rubens' works (78 works!). His pastoral works are very pleasing to the eye and created primarily for the pleasure of contemplation.
From an aesthetic point of view, it is difficult to single out any one among the works of Rubens. However, I especially like the painting “The Judgment of Paris”, rather because of the myth itself, the plot of which was depicted by the artist - the choice of the “most beautiful woman” led to the long Trojan War.
5. El Greco. Fable. 1580 Room 8b.
El Greco. Fable. 1580 Prado Museum, Madrid. Despite the fact that El Greco has much more famous canvases, this painting impresses me the most. It is not quite typical for the artist, who often painted on biblical themes with characteristic elongated bodies and faces of the depicted characters (the painter, by the way, looks like the heroes of his paintings - the same thin with a long face).
As the name suggests, this is an allegory painting. On the website of the Prado Museum, a hypothesis is put forward that a ember flaring up from a small breath means an easily flashing sexual desire.
6. Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights. 1500-1505 Hall 56a.
Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights. 1505-1510 Prado Museum, Madrid. If you like Bosch, the Prado Museum has the largest collection of his works (12 works).
Of course, the most famous of them - . You can stand in front of this picture for a very long time, considering a large number of details on the three parts of the triptych.
Bosch, like many of his contemporaries in the Middle Ages, was a very pious man. It is even more surprising that you would not expect such a game of imagination from a religious painter!
7. Robert Campin. Holy Barbara. 1438 Room 58.
Robert Campin. Holy Barbara. 1438 Prado Museum, Madrid. Of course, I was shocked by this one (this is the right wing of the triptych; the left wing is also kept in the Prado; the central part is lost). It was hard for me to believe that in the 15th century they created a literally photographic image. This is how much skill, time and patience is needed!
Now, of course, I fully agree with the version of the English artist David Hockney that such paintings were painted using concave mirrors. They projected displayed objects onto the canvas and simply circled the master - hence such realism and detail.
After all, it is not for nothing that Campin's work is so similar to the work of another more famous Flemish artist, Jan van Eyck, who also owned this technique.
However, this picture does not lose its value. After all, we have in fact a photographic image of the life of people of the 15th century!
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This museum is well known to every true connoisseur of art. The Prado Museum in Madrid is one of the most visited in the world. The best canvases of the Renaissance and New Time are collected there.
Where is the Prado Museum located?
In Madrid, as in many ancient cities, there is also an old city. It is there that the main historical sights are located. In the place where the Prado Museum is located, everything that can delight is collected: works of art, various archaeological exhibits, ancient costumes and coins. The Prado National Museum, together with the Thyssen-Boremis Museums and the Reina Sofia Center for the Arts, formed the Art Avenue. The location, Paseo del Prado boulevard, gave the name to the museum at one time.
History of the Prado Museum
The basis of the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid was created when King Charles V ruled in Spain. The king sincerely admired the works of Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese. It was from him that the creation of a unique collection began. In the future, the business was continued by the Bourbon and Habsburg dynasties.
The construction of the Prado Museum in Madrid began under King Charles III of Spain for public needs. However, the building began to function only during the reign of Charles VII, who turned the building into a museum of painting and sculpture. In November 1819, the grand opening of the museum took place, which was originally conceived as a demonstration of the wealth of the collection of the royal house of Spain. At the time of opening, there were 311 paintings. It was then that the museum got its name.
During its existence, the museum has undergone many changes. In 1826-1827, the museum was given paintings that had previously been kept at the Academy of San Fernando. In the period of 1836, after the closure of church educational institutions, all art treasures were transferred to the National Museum, and then migrated to the Prado Museum.
During the civil war, all the paintings from the Prado Museum in Madrid were sent to Switzerland. Fortunately, in 1936 the museum resumed its existence again, but not all the exhibits returned to their places. Some of the paintings are still in Geneva.
Prado Museum in Madrid: paintings
The works of Velasquez and Goya are most fully represented in the museum. In general, the collection of paintings is about 4800 canvases. So the collection is rightfully considered the largest in the world. The museum contains paintings by El Greco, Zurbaran, Alonso Cana, Ribera and many others. The museum was opened during the life of Goya, but the paintings appeared in it only after the death of the master.
The Italian school is also represented by more than a thousand paintings. In the past, they were all in the royal collection, replenished over several centuries. Most of the paintings belong to the period of the XVII-XVIII centuries. Only from the works of Titian there are 40 canvases. Also in this collection are works by Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Mantegna. The works of Rafaele, Veronose are located in the halls of the museum.
Paintings by Flemish artists represent a collection of works by Bosch, Jan van Eyck, Jacob Jordaens, Rubens. It is the collection of paintings by Rubens that is rightfully read as the pearl of the collections of the Flemish school. In total, there are 90 paintings of his creations in the museum.
Among other schools, the museum allows you to see exhibitions of artists from Great Britain, France, Germany and Holland. Of course, you will not see such a variety and scale as in previous schools, but the expositions are no less interesting. Among the masterpieces of the Prado Museum, it is worth noting the works of Fra Angelico - the Annunciation, Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights, El Greco - The Nobleman with a Hand on His Chest, Raphael - The Cardinal and Rubens - The Three Graces.
