Besides Spanish art, you’ll also see large collections from the Italian, Flemish, Dutch, and French schools. The German collection is smaller. Italian paintings (1300-1800) cover the gamut from the early Renaissance to the eighteenth century. There are also Greek and Roman sculptures.

The part of the museum that seemingly gets the most attention is Hall 89, where Goya’s two paintings The Clothed Maja and The Nude Maja can be found. Not unexpectedly, these two works caused a big scandal in their day, and were deemed to be obscene by the Inquisition in 1815.

For me personally, the most stunning pieces by a wide margin were Goya’s two documentary masterpieces depicting the uprising against occupying French forces on May 2, 1808 and the subsequent executions of the remaining resisters the following day. Both paintings are located side by side in room 39 of the Villenueva Building, and project a powerful message.

In The 2nd of May, 1808 Goya depicts the brutality of war. Local villagers armed with little more than knives clash with members of the well-armed French Calvary.

In The 3rd of May, 1808: The Executions on Principe Pio Hill Goya’s victim, harshly illuminated by a bright lantern, is dressed in a clean white shirt, and his outstretched arms bear resemblance to the Crucifixion. The physical features of the firing squad are obscured, yet their uniforms are painted in precise detail. The silhouette of the church is the only detail visible in the dimly lit background. Interestingly, although the painting was commissioned by the state, it was held in storage and went unseen by the public for forty years after it was painted.

The grounds outside the Museo Nacional del Prado.

Most of the Prado’s collection is not what I’d consider closely aligned with my own personal tastes. But that’s not to say there’s not a lot to like here: I’m a bit of a sucker for Caravaggio, so I enjoyed seeing David and Goliath, and I can appreciate Botticelli’s The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti (first episode). And after all, spending time in Madrid and not seeing the Prado would be like being in Paris and not going to the Louvre or visiting Florence and skipping the Uffizi.

Additional information:

District: Bourbon
Metro: Banco de España (L2), Atocha (L1)

The added bonus this time was the exhibit "Vermeer and the Dutch interior," which covers works of Vermeer, Borch, Dou, de Hooch, Maes, Metsu and Steen during the period of 1650-1675. Vermeer is probably the most famous of this group of painters, which is typically skipped by the visitors to most museums, but this particular exhibit has been put together with paintings from all over the world: New York, Washington D.C., Vienna, Amsterdam, Dresden, Paris, St Peterburg (Russia) and many other places -- Spain doesn’t own any of Vermeer’s paintings. The main subjects in all of the paintings are mainly women in their regular life –- sewing, dressing, writing, drawing, playing musical instruments -- and the play of the light and perspective is what draws us to these images. Eight out of 34 works painted by Vermeer in his lifetime are presented in Prado, with his "Young Woman with a Water Pitcher" as the cover painting for the exhibit. The uniqueness of this exhibit is that you can compare the style of several painters side by side and see why Vermeer stands out from the rest of the group.

On the second floor you encounter what you came here for: the Spanish masters. Large halls with Velazquez’s famous portraits of the little infanta so live that you think she is just waiting to step off from the painting and regal Felipe IV, his portraits of kings and regular people. Alongside in the gallery parallel to the rooms with Velazquez’s paintings are Ribera’s works, full of drama adapted by him from Caravaggio, and Murillo’s Madonnas and saints with this very recognizable Seville school of painting that has been copied from him in a lot of church paintings throughout Spain. Other rooms have the rare works by Zurbaran, Rubens (a huge collection of Rubens’ paintings –- truly remarkable), Van Dyck, Teniers, Rembrandt, Guetchino, Caravaggio, Reni, Tiepolo, Poussin, and all the way on the other side of the floor is what everybody comes to Madrid for -– Goya’s works from all periods of his life: portraits of the royalty on horses and without, the famous Majas for which he was very criticized, sketches for the tapestries in El Pardo, and the dark reaction to the horrors of the Napoleonic wars in many paintings, the most powerful of which are probably "Saturn Devouring One of His Sons" and "The 3rd of May in Madrid" showing execution of Spanish by the French troops.

Continued in Part III