The Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures…
November 1819 CE
The building that is now the home of the Museo Nacional del Prado was designed in 1785 by architect of the Enlightenment in Spain Juan de Villanueva on the orders of Charles III to house the Natural History Cabinet.
Nonetheless, the building's final function was not decided until the monarch's grandson, Ferdinand VII, encouraged by his wife, Queen María Isabel de Braganza, decided to use it as a new Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures.
The Royal Museum, which will soon become known as the National Museum of Painting and Sculpture, and subsequently the Museo Nacional del Prado, has been created with the double aim of showing the works of art belonging to the Spanish Crown and to demonstrate to the rest of Europe that Spanish art is of equal merit to any other national school.
The first catalogue of the Museum, published in 1819 and solely devoted to Spanish painting, includes three hundred and eleven paintings, although at this time the Museum houses fifteen hundred and ten from the various royal residences, the Reales Sitios, including works from other schools.
The exceptionally important royal collection, which forms the nucleus of the present-day Museo del Prado, had started to increase significantly in the sixteenth century during the time of Charles V and continued under the succeeding Habsburg and Bourbon monarchs.
Their efforts and determination lead to the Royal Collection being enriched by some of the masterpieces now to be seen in the Prado.
These include The Descent from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch, Knight with his Hand on his Breast by El Greco, The Death of the Virgin by Mantegna, The Holy Family, known as "La Perla", by Raphael, Charles V at Mülhberg by Titian, Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet by Tintoretto, Dürer's Self-portrait, Las Meninas by Velázquez, The Three Graces by Rubens, and The Family of Charles IV by Goya.
Locations
Regions
Southwest Europe
View →Subregions
