The Prado Museum: History of Spain's Most Important Collection

The Museo del Prado is one of the world's great museums and Spain's most important. Its collection — built up over centuries by the Spanish crown — brings together works by Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Titian, Rubens, and Bosch, among many others. But the history of the Prado as a public institution does not begin with the medieval monarchs: it begins with the Spanish Enlightenment of the 18th century.

Origins: the Royal Cabinet of Natural Sciences

The Prado building was commissioned by Charles III in 1785 from architect Juan de Villanueva — the same architect who rebuilt the Plaza Mayor — to house a cabinet of natural sciences. The neoclassical architecture, with its celebrated ionic-columned facade, is Villanueva's work.

The Peninsular War against Napoleon (1808–1814) halted construction. The building was used as a barracks by French troops and suffered considerable damage. With the Bourbon restoration, Ferdinand VII and his wife María Isabel de Braganza drove the transformation of the unfinished cabinet into a painting museum.

The opening of the Prado (1819)

The Real Museo de Pintura y Escultura — the Prado's original name — opened to the public on 19 November 1819. The initial collection comprised 311 paintings from the royal palaces: El Escorial, the Royal Palace, the Palacio del Buen Retiro. Entry was free and open to the general public three days a week.

Ferdinand VII successively donated more royal collections to the museum. Throughout the 19th century, the Prado also incorporated funds from the nationalised convents (1835) and bequests from private collectors and aristocrats.

The collection

The Prado's collection is particularly outstanding in:

Spanish painting: Velázquez (Las Meninas, The Surrender of Breda, The Triumph of Bacchus), Goya (the Charles IV family portrait, the tapestry cartoons, the Black Paintings, The Third of May 1808), El Greco (The Knight with his Hand on his Breast, The Disrobing of Christ).

Flemish and Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting: Titian (Charles V at the Battle of Mühlberg), Rubens (The Three Graces, The Garden of Love), Bosch (The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Haywain).

Italian Renaissance painting: Raphael, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Andrea del Sarto, Tintoretto.

The Prado holds over 8,000 paintings in its collection, of which between 1,500 and 2,000 are on display at any given time.

The Civil War and the evacuation of the works

The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) placed the collection in serious danger. The Republican government took the decision to evacuate the most important works to Valencia (1936) and, subsequently, to Geneva (1939), under the custody of the League of Nations. It was one of the largest and most complex art evacuations in history. All the works returned to Madrid in 1939.

The Prado in the 21st century

In 2007, an extension designed by Rafael Moneo opened, incorporating the neogothic cloister of the church of Los Jerónimos and significantly expanding the exhibition space. This extension allowed the display of works that had remained in storage for lack of space.

Hours and access: Open every day. Free entry on Monday to Saturday evenings (18:00–20:00) and Sunday afternoons (17:00–19:00).

See also our guide to Habsburg Madrid.

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References:

• Museo Nacional del Prado — History of the museum.
• Portús Pérez, Javier — La sala reservada y el desnudo en el Museo del Prado. Madrid, 1998.