Permanent Collection at Museum del Prado on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Apr 01 2008
Originally conceived as a Natural History Musem – a role it never came to fulfil – and built on the orders of Charles III, the building which now houses the Museo Nacional del Prado was designed by the architect Juan de Villanueva en 1785. Its purpose would remain unclear until Ferdinand VII, encouraged by his second wife Barbara of Braganza, decided to establish a Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture. The Royal Museum, which would soon change its name to the Museo Nacional de Pintura y Escultura (National Museum of Painting and Sculpture), and subsequently to the Museo Nacional del Prado, first opened to the public in 1819 with 311 paintings from the Spanish Royal Collection. The Royal Collections, the origins of the Prado’s present collection, originated in the sixteenth century under the Emperor Charles V were enriched over the years by all the succeeding Spanish monarchs, both Habsburgs and Bourbons. The Museum’s collection expanded during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the addition of holdings from other museums (such as the Museo de la Trinidad in 1872, and the former Museo de Arte Moderno in more recent times, along with numerous donations and acquisitions). This fact, together with the corresponding increase in visitor numbers has meant that Villanueva’s original building for the Museo del Prado has undergone numerous expansions (in 1847, 1880, 1893, 1943, 1963 and 1964), to the point where no further work on this historic building was possible. For this reason the Prado has been obliged to look at adjoining sites for its current expansion programme due to be opened in October 2007. The Museo Nacional del Prado is without doubt the only institution able to present through its collection the entire history of Spanish painting, from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Outstanding masterpieces by artists such as Bermejo, Berruguete, Sánchez Coello, El Greco, Ribalta, Ribera, Zurbarán, Murillo, Velázquez, Goya, Vicente López, the Madrazo family, Rosales and Sorolla form an unparalleled ensemble of international renown. In fact, the study of almost any Spanish painter and his work is almost impossible without visiting the numerous galleries of the Museo Nacional del Prado. The Italian School is another high point of the Museum’s collection, with fifteenth century masterpieces such as The Annunciation by Fra Angelico, The Death of the Virgin by Mantegna, and the Dead Christ supported by Angels by Antonello de Messina. Due to the taste of sixteenth century monarchs, the collection shows a bias towards Venetian art and the work of Titian in particular. This artist is represented in the Prado by 36 paintings, the largest collection anywhere of his works, while there are also major examples of the art of Tintoretto and Veronese. Image Credits: Image with introduction: The new Prado extension Image 2: Las Meninas, Diego Velázquez, Óleo sobre lienzo, 318 x 276 cm, h. 1656, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado PO1174 Image 3: Los fusilamientos del 3 de mayo, Francisco de Goya, Óleo sobre lienzo, 268 x 347 cm, 1814, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado PO0749  |
