Join a journey through the history of Spain through art at the Prado Museum. Discover the masterpieces that narrate the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire as we explore the most iconic paintings of this cultural gem.
The Prado Museum has its origin in the painting collection of King Philip IV, the most valuable in the world, who had inherited from his predecessors (Charles V, Philip II, and Philip III) an important sample of works of art of the most prestigious painters in Europe. After Philip IV, the royal collection was enriched until 1819. Under the reign of Ferdinand VII, the Prado Museum was inaugurated in the building of Juan de Villanueva, designed several decades earlier by the grandfather of Ferdinand VII, Charles III.
The succession of paintings that we appreciate in the museum shows us, therefore, a walk through the history of Spain and, more specifically, of the Spanish Empire, from its period of growth with Emperor Charles V and his son Philip II (where the Venetian painter Titian acquires a great prominence); through the cultural flowering where the greatest exponent is Velázquez, to the decline and disappearance of this empire with the Napoleonic Wars, being Goya, the greatest exponent.
The visit will also address aesthetic, artistic, and stylistic issues of the most important painters and paintings in the museum.
