Prado

Prado, Madrid. Spain's national museum of art, opened to the public in 1819. ‘Prado’ is Spanish for ‘meadow’ and the museum takes its name from a nearby tree-lined walk called the Paseo del Prado. The building, one of the finest examples of Spanish Neoclassical architecture, was designed by Juan de Villanueva and begun in 1787. It was originally intended to house an academy of sciences and a museum of natural history, but before it opened it was pillaged by the invading French army in 1808. After the restoration of the Spanish monarchy, Ferdinand VII had the building repaired and decided to use it as an art gallery rather than for scientific purposes. It became national property after Queen Isabella II was deposed in 1868. The major part of the collection derives from the royal collections made in the course of three centuries by the Habsburg and Bourbon monarchs of Spain, who included some of the most discriminating and lavish patrons in Europe, most notably Philip II and Philip IV. It is not comprehensive in its coverage but is supremely rich in certain areas. Above all, it contains what is far and away the world's greatest collection of Spanish painting, with about 50 pictures by Velázquez (roughly half his surviving output) and more than a hundred by Goya. It has more pictures by Bosch, Rubens, and Titian than any other collection in the world, and among the other artists who are particularly well represented are van Dyck, Tintoretto, and Veronese.