The Prado is unique among the world’s great museums. Its collection is astonishingly rich, with master paintings from the 13C to the 18C. It is one of the more complete wider representation of European schools of paintings. Assembled by the Spanish kings for their palaces, its treasures are now housed in the grandiose Neo-Classical palace designed in 1787. The Prado contains the most important collection of Spanish masters to be found anywhere in the world. It has the finest works included paintings by El Greco, Zurbaran, Velazquez, Murillo, Goya etc. The great strength of the museum is that it has also amassed extensive collections of other European artists. As the Low Countries were once part of the Spanish Empire, its collection included works by Rogier van der Weyden, the unsurpassed works of Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, etc. Rubens’ works are well-represented.

1. Museo del Prado
The National Art Gallery in Madrid
First created 3 Oct 2018. Version 2.0 - 5 Jun 2019. Daperro. London.
Naked ‘Maja’. c1800-03. Goya.

2. Medieval 12C Spanish
Painted in Spain, Segovia, during the early
stages of the Reconquista (814-1139). During
this period much of Spain and Portugal were
under the Moors, which was Islamic.
Segovia was in the front line. Neither Spain
nor Portugal existed as a country.
Spain in Reconquista (814-1139).
Spanish

3. Medieval 13C Spanish
Similar type of altarpieces like this were found all over Europe from Norway, England to the Iberian
Peninsula. During this time master craftsmen were becoming professional artists.

4. Medieval 14C Spanish
In the 14C Spain was still divided into Christian
kingdoms of Portugal, Aragon, Castile and
Navarre. The Muslim was confined to the
southern half of the peninsula, the Emirate of
Granada, which survived to 1492.

5. El Greco (c1540-1614)
El Greco’s name was Domenikos
Theotokopoulos. Although often
regarded as a Spanish painter, he was
ethically a Greek. At the age of 26, he
travelled to Venice and later practised in
Rome. He enriched his style with
elements of Mannerism and Venetian
Renaissance.

6. El Greco c1577
Designed to the church of Santo
Domingo el Antiguo, this painting was
part of El Greco’s first commission on
his arrival in Toledo in 1577.

7. El Greco (c1540-1614)

8. El Greco (c1540-1614)
El Greco early works show his wide
ranges: Titian, Michelangelo, Bassano,
Raphael, Durer etc. In Spain El Greco
spent most of his professional life in
Toledo, then the ‘capital’ of Spain. In his
later works, he often painted people
having elongated limbs, small heads and
stylized facial features.

9. Francisco Zurbaran (1598-1664)
Still Life with Vessels’. c1650. 45x84 cm. F Zurbaran.
Francesco Zurbaran was a contemporary of Diego Velazquez. His style was somewhat limited, often bleak,
austere, unquestioning piety of Spanish devotional art, inline with the religious climate of the Counter-
Reformation.

10. Francisco Zurbaran (1598-1664)

11. Francisco Zurbaran
(1598-1664)

12. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660)
Velazquez is probably the best known of all the Spanish painter
in history. He became one of the highest decorated court
painter ever lived. Because of his association with the Spanish
monarchy the Prado has the finest collection of Velazquez.

13. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660)

14. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660)

15. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660)

16. Diego Velazquez
(1599-1660)
A surprised depiction of Mars. Velazquez
chose a veteran as Mars, but well past
his prime. He was rather deflated,
peering out under the shadow cast by a
helmet.

17. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660)
Instead of painting the monarchy. Velazquez painted himself in the company of the royal family.

18. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660)

19. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660)
Velazquez also painted personality at the court. He
always painted them with dignity.

20. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660)

21. Juan Carreno de Miranda (1614-85)

22. Juan Carreno de Miranda (1614-85)
Miranda’s family moved to Madrid in
1623 and trained under Pedro de las
Cuevas and Bartolome Roman. He
came to the notice of Velazquez. In
1658 Carreno was hired as an assistant
on a royal commission to paint frescoes
in the Alcazar of Madrid. He was hired
as the court painter to the queen in
1671.

23. Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-82)
In contrast with Zurbaran, Murillo’s approach in
the 1640s was softer, sweeter and more fused.
Murillo visited Madrid, probably in 1648 being
apparently helped by Velazquez. His change of
style from his earliest works, in his use of colour,
the hard naturalism, like the beggar-boy
paintings. His early religious subjects were cool,
detached, with only a little idealization.
A Boy with a Dog’. 1650s. Hermitage. St Petersburg

24. Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-82)

25. Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-82)
Murillo idealized devotional forms, with
Baroque flutter to the draperies, a certain
artificiality, always with warmth, charm and
quiet religious feeling.

26. Luis Egidio Melendez (1716-80)

27. Francisco Goya (1748-1828)
Prado has a very comprehensive collection on
paintings by Goya. He was the most
important Spanish painter in the 18C and 19C.
He painted the Spanish royal family, the
French occupying rulers and eventually the
British liberator, the Duke of Wellington. His
painting skill was certainty recognised during
his life time.
(An aging) Self Portrait.1815.. Prado. Madrid.

28. Francisco Goya (1748-1828)
Goya produced a nude portrait of the same woman with identical pose.

29. Francisco Goya (1748-1828)
The Nude Maja is renowned for the straightforward and unashamed gaze of the model.

30. Carlos de Haesa (1829-98)
He was a Spanish painter but born in
Belgium. He was noted for the Realism
in his landscape like the painting on
Europa. He became the first professor
of landscape painting.

31. Bernardo Lopez (1800-74)
Also known as Bernardo Lopez Piquer, he
was a portrait painter noted for his pastels.

32. Foreign Paintings

33. Weyden (1400-64)

34. Weyden (1400-64)
Weyden’s The Descent from the Cross is
one of the prided painting in the Prado’s
collection.
Rogier van der Weyden was an Early
Netherlandish painter. He painted mainly
religious triptychs, altarpieces and
sometimes portraits. He was highly
successful and internationally famous in
his lifetime, his paintings were exported to
Italy and Spain.

35. Bosch (c1450-1516)
He was a Netherlandish
painter. His work often
contains fantastic
illustrations of religious
concepts and narratives. His
pessimistic and fantastical
style cast a wide influence
on northern art of the 16C.

36. Durer (1471-1528)
Durer, the first self-conscious artistic
genius in the northern European art
painter, draughtsman printmaker in
both relief and intaglio, theoretician
and would be reformer of art.
Through his woodcuts and
engravings, most of them published
by himself, he became an
international artist.

37. Joachin Patinier (1475/80-1524)

38. Raphael was one of the three High
Renaissance artist. The decade between
1500-1510 saw the emergence of
Raphael as a great master. In his youth
he learned from Leonardo and
Michelangelo. In his early years he was
particularly good in painting the
Madonna and Child, portraying the
affection between mother and the child.
Raphael 1507
At the time Raphael was particular
attracted to the style of Leonardo and
others such as Michelangelo. The
delicate detail and serene nature of the
painting reflects his training in the
workshop of Perugino.

39. Titan (c1490-1575)

40. Lotto (1480-1557)
Lotto, one of the distinctive portrait
painter of the early 16C. His early
works are strongly influenced by
Giovanni Bellini but afterward his
portrait reflected Botticelli, Fra
Bartolommeo, Raphael, Correggio,
Giorgione, Titan and even something of
Durer and Holbein. His portraits were
always with an intensely personal
quality. Little is known of the man.

41. Tintoretto (1518-1594)

42. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1524/30-1660)

43. Caravaggio (1570-1610)
Caravaggio is of particular
importance in Spain, for he was
responsible for the origin of the
realist and ‘tenebrist’ style of
painting that later became so
widespread and popular in the
works of such artists as Ribera and
Zurbaran.

44. Rubens (1577-1640)
Rubens painted this picture during his first visit
to Spain using it to show off his talents and to
attract the attention of the court.

45. Pensionante de Saraceni

46. La Tour (1593-1652)
Georges de La Tour was a French Caravaggisti.
He worked all his life in Lorraine. In his
later works he adopted a form of indirect
lighting from a candle or other concealed
source of light, which is close to Dutch
Caravaggisti like Honthurst.

47. Rembrandt (1606-1669)
Rembrandt painted
this this portrait of his
bride, Saskia. It was
painted on the same
year of his marriage.

48. All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners.
Available free for non-commercial and personal use.
The
End
Music – Ernesto Cortazar. Mascarade

49. European Art Galleries
Vienna
Hague
Madrid
Copenhagen

50. With over a thousand of paintings in more than 10 countries.