The Prado Museum is one of the largest art galleries in the world, and in 2019 it will be 200 years old. This institution contains the largest and most valuable collection of Spanish painting in the world, from the Romanesque to the 19th century.
And what is more: this great bicentennial pictorial library is a reflection of the history of Spain, since it was born as a Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures, and its objective was, neither more nor less, to collect the more works, the better of the Favorite authors of the Spanish monarchs of the 16th and 17th centuries.
This explains why some authors are exposed, let’s say, in a superlative way. This is the case of Tiziano, Goya, Velázquez, Rubens… Some of the most important and extensive collections of these and other artists are exhibited and cared for here. This also explains, on the other hand, why some eras are much more represented than others. For example, the Dutch painting of the six hundred, which is considered that, at that time, was not interesting, or was not a trend.
The author considered the base pillar on which the royal collection is based is Titian , and with him, other Venetians. Later, Flemish paintings were also incorporated, much to the taste of King Philip II, such as Rubens and Van Dyck. The monarch also tried to cover some existing ‘gaps’, periods and movements not represented, as happened with the non-Venetian Renaissance Italians, such as Raphael, Parmigianino or Correggio.
The Bourbon dynasty brought in the French painters, and continued with the Italians. Specifically, Carlos III hung the canvases of two rival artists, antagonistic in their ways of understanding and practicing painting: the Venetian Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and the Anton Raphael Mengs.
Already at the end of the 18th century, a Spanish painter dominates the courtly pictorial scene: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. In fact, the two best-represented great painters are Velázquez and Goya. The Museum has about fifty paintings by Velázquez, almost all from the Royal Collection. Goya’s collection includes 140 paintings. Although he worked for many years in the service of the royal family, few works by Goya entered the Prado from the Royal Sites. One of them was The Family of Carlos IV .
The inventory of the Prado Museum
The inventory of artistic assets of the Prado Museum includes 27,509 objects , broken down into 7,825 paintings , 8,637 drawings, 5,493 engravings and 34 stamping dies, 932 sculptures (plus 154 fragments), 1,101 pieces of decorative arts, 38 weapons and armor, 2,155 medals and coins, 981 photographs, 4 books and 155 maps.
Until a few years ago, due to space limitations, the museum exhibited a selection of some 900 works of the highest quality , which gave it the consideration of “the highest concentration of masterpieces per square meter”. With the expansion carried out by the architect Rafael Moneo, since July 2011, when the rooms were reorganized, the permanent exhibition has added some 300 works, so that the total exhibited that visitors can see reaches 1,150 paintings .
In addition to those already mentioned, works by Bartolomé Bermejo, Pedro Berruguete, Sánchez Coello, El Greco , Ribera, Zurbarán, Murillo, Alonso Cano, Velázquez, Goya , Vicente López, Fortuny, the Madrazo and other great painters make up a universally recognized unmatched group .
Image: Prado Museum, view of the main gallery.
LAURENT AND MINIER, JUAN
Image copyright © Museo Nacional del Prado
