Museo Nacional del Prado Anniversary: The Prado Museum is initiated; What are the main works at the site?

On November 19, 1819, the Royal Museum of Paintings, the initial name of the now Prado Museum, was initiated in Madrid, Spain, a name that was initially conveyed by the now Museo Nacional del Prado. With the establishment of the institution, it was would have liked to display pieces from the Royal Collection. Around then it had 311 paintings, displayed in three rooms.

The building that today houses the Museo Nacional del Prado was designed by the architect Juan de Villanueva in 1785, as the Cabinet of Natural Sciences. Even though the last destination of this construction would not be clear until his grandson Fernando VII, driven by his wife, decided to distribute the building to the construction of a Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures.

The Royal Museum, which would soon be renamed the National Museum of Painting and Sculpture and later the National Prado Museum, opened for the first time in 1819 and notwithstanding the takes a shot at the display, there were 1,510 from the Royal Sites, as per data from its official page.

What are the main works in the Prado Museum?

The rooms of this enclosure house various works ranging from the 16th to the 19th century, including those by El Bosco, Goya, Rubens, Velázquez, and El Greco.

Self-picture, by Albrecht Dürer

An amazing picture where Dürer is depicted in his best garments to show off his dominance. This painting was made in 1498 and is a standout amongst other self-representations of the author. In this painting, you can see the zenith of the painter’s technical and artistic prowess.

Saturn eating up his Son, by Francisco de Goya

This piece has a place with a collection of 14 scenes known as Black Paintings, the name is obtained both by the use of black and dark pigments and by the themes. From the start, the disturbing pictures decorated Goya’s home and it was not until 1874 that Salvador Martínez Cubells, the primary art restorer at the Prado Museum, replicated them onto canvas.

The naked Maja, by Francisco de Goya

This piece and its friend La Maja vestida represent two of the creator’s most controversial works. It is an appointed work painted before 1800.

The gentleman with his hand on his chest, del Greco

Oil on canvas was painted in the first Spanish period of the Greek painter, around 1580. It has gotten one of the main pictures in the history of art.

Las Meninas, by Velázquez

Considered the painter’s masterpiece, it was made in 1656 in the Prince’s Room of the Alcázar of Madrid, in which it represents the family of King Felipe IV. This representation is one of the extraordinary works in the history of Western art.

The Garden of Earthly Delights, by El Bosco

This work is part of the permanent exhibition of the Prado Museum. The three-panel painting commits the left panel to the earthly Paradise, the central panel to the world of sin and the right represents Hell.

The three graces, by Rubens

Made somewhere in the range of 1630 and 1635, it is one of the most famous paintings by the Baroque painter and one of the most visited nudes in the museum.

On May 3 in Madrid or Los Fusilamientos, Francisco Goya

This painting depicts the executions of May 3 on the mountain of Príncipe Pío. Perhaps the bloodiest events of the War of Independence in 1813 finished in the re-visitation of Spain of Fernando VII.