Prado

Prado, Spain's national museum of painting and sculpture, located in Madrid. The Prado houses nearly 3,000 paintings and many other sculptures, drawings, and pieces of furniture and decorative art.

The collection consists mainly of works added to the Spanish royal collection from the 16th century to the early 19th century. Artists from countries that were friendly with Spain contributed to the royal collection, so many outstanding examples of the Italian and Flemish schools of painting are represented. Of particular note is a series of paintings by Titian commissioned by Charles V and Philip II in the 16th century, and a series painted by Peter Paul Rubens for Philip IV in the early 17th century. In addition, the Prado houses an outstanding collection of paintings from the Spanish school, including works by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, and El Greco.

The former royal collections have been supplemented by a great number of acquisitions, including an important collection of classical sculpture collected mainly during the 17th and 18th centuries and many paintings from churches and convents that were added during the late 19th century.

The Prado was founded in 1810 by Fernando VII at the initiative of his wife, Doña Isabel of Braganza. The original building, a great work of Neo-Classical architecture by D. Juan de Villanueva, has been extended several times during the 20th century. Today the collection is divided between the Villanueva building, which houses paintings from the Middle Ages to the 19th-century, and the Casón del Buen Retins, which houses 19th-century works formerly displayed in the Prado and the Modern Art Museum.