The Museo Nacional del Prado, in Madrid, Spain, is one of the most important in the world, as well as one of the most visited, and is considered the most important cultural institution in Spain, according to the 2019 Observatory of Culture, a study carried out among several hundred professionals in the sector.
Uniquely rich in paintings by European masters from the 16th to the 19th centuries, according to art historian and Hispanicist Jonathan Brown "few would dare to doubt that it is the world's most important museum for European painting."
Its main attraction lies in the wide presence of Velázquez, el Greco, Goya (the artist most widely represented in the museum), Titian, Rubens and Bosco, of which it has the best and most extensive collections that exist worldwide, to what must be added outstanding groups of authors as important as Murillo, Ribera, Zurbarán, Fra Angelico, Rafael, Veronese, Tintoretto, Patinir, Antonio Moro, Van Dyck or Poussin, to name just some of the most relevant.
Due to endemic space limitations, the museum exhibited a selection of works of the highest quality (about 900), which is why it was defined as "the highest concentration of masterpieces per square meter." With the expansion of Rafael Moneo, inaugurated in 2007, it was expected that the exhibited selection would grow by 50%, with some 450 more works.
Like other great European museums, such as the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence, the Prado owes its origins to the collecting fondness of the ruling dynasties over several centuries. It reflects the personal tastes of the Spanish kings and their network of alliances and their political enmities, making it an asymmetrical collection; Some artists and styles have an insurmountable repertoire, and on the contrary, others are not represented or scarcely. Only since the 20th century has it been tried, with uneven results, to solve some absences.
The pictorial schools of Spain, Flanders and Italy (especially Venice) show the leading role in the Prado, followed by the French collection, more limited although with good examples of Nicolas Poussin and Claudio de Lorena.
German painting has a discontinuous repertoire, with four masterpieces by Dürer and multiple portraits by Mengs as the main treasures.
Along with the short repertoire of British painting, confined almost to the portrait genre, we must mention Dutch painting, a section that is not too broad but includes Rembrandt.
Together with the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museo Nacional del Prado forms the so-called Triangle of Art, a mecca for many tourists from around the world.