The Prado is a testament to the cultural richness of Madrid. No matter how many times we have seen Las Meninas or The Garden of Earthly Delights, it is worth returning and being amazed by its thousands of treasures. However, the size of the building often forces us to go straight to what is important. Seeing the entire collection is practically impossible, at least in one day. Therefore, having a guide to the essential works is an unwritten rule before entering the museum.
David vanquishing Goliath, by Caravaggio
This work by Michelangelo Merisi (aka “il Caravaggio”), restored in 2023, shows the outcome of a famous biblical episode: the battle between Philistines and Israelites narrated in the Old Testament(Samuel, chapter 17), which ends with the death of the giant Goliath at the hands of David.
The play of light and shadow, Goliath’s expression and David’s simple clothing indicate that the painting has a marked baroque style. It stands out for its darkness and dramatism, qualities very recurrent in the magnificent artistic legacy of Caravaggio.
📍Location: Floor 1, Room 7A
The Garden of Earthly Delights, by Bosch
The Garden of Earthly Delights underlines the ephemeral nature of sinful pleasures and the fatal consequences of falling into them. The triptych puts into images many ideas of Christian morality through characters and spaces. Each element is painted with great attention to detail, from the mythological creatures to the impossible landscapes that make up the work.
The three scenes of the triptych have a significant point in common: sin. The left panel presents Eve, who takes the main blame for the expulsion from Paradise, and the serpent, who appears hidden in the painting. The middle panel portrays the deadly sins in an idyllic world only in appearance, and the right, in darker tones, is a representation of hell in which earthly sins (especially lust) are punished.
This is one of the most important paintings in the collection for its symbolic complexity and, above all, for showing the fantastic imaginary of the author, which has inspired numerous artists.
📍Location: Floor 0, Room 56A
The Three Graces
These three goddesses are Beauty, Joy and Abundance. Rubens painted this picture for himself around 1635, and it remained in his own collection until his death. The faces of the young women are inspired by his portraits of Helena Fourment, to whom he had been married for about five years when he completed the work.
📍Location: Floor 1, Room 29
The Annunciation, by Fra Angelico
There are no words to describe the colorfulness of this painting (especially the blues) that match the experience of seeing it live and direct, and even more so after the restoration that Almudena Sánchez carried out in 2019-you can see the before and after in this interactive image. Considered one of the first masterpieces by Fra Giovanni de Fiesole -the name by which Fra Angelico was known until his death-, it was painted between 1425 and 1426 for the convent of St. Dominic in Fiesole.
In it, Angelico depicted both the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise and the Annunciation scene itself with a level of detail (in vegetation and objects) and a use of architecture that demonstrate that he was closely following the pictorial transformations of his time. It is one of those paintings in which it is worth stopping and taking time to observe and appreciate all the details.
📍Location: Floor 0, Room 056B
The Hermitage of San Isidro on Feast Day, by Goya
The Prado Museum alone holds more than half of the works by the Aragonese painter: a vast collection amounting to 1,207 works including paintings, drawings and prints among which are, of course, some of the artist’s best-known works. However, beyond these titles, the scenes he dedicated to Madrid, such as the one we are dealing with, also deserve to be highlighted.
The sketch portrays the celebration of the day of San Isidro at the foot of the hermitage, where the Madrilenians congregated to drink the water from the miraculous fountain. In the scene, majos and majas with their typical costumes, long queues and that clear light of May so characteristic serve to verify that, however much time has passed, some things have not changed so much.
📍Location: Floor 2, Room 094
Still life with flowers, gilded silver cup, almonds, dried fruits, sweets, bread rolls, wine and pewter jug, by Clara Peeters.
One of the few women artists whose work is exhibited at El Prado is Clara Peeters, of whom there is no information beyond what can be deduced from the study of her paintings: her authorial record in the museum is written among loose biographical fragments and question marks, although it is known with certainty that her first painting dates from 1607.
Almost all her works, such as this one from 1611, are still lifes, partly because that is what the limited access to culture allowed women at the time. Halfway between still life and scientific illustration, the painting shows a clear concern for representing objects as faithfully as possible to reality.
And, to the attentive eye, the self-portraits that he captured in the golden cup and the pewter jug in the form of reflections will not go unnoticed -you can see it in more detail by enlarging the painting here or, better, seeing it in situ-.
📍Location: Floor 2, Room 082
The Triumph of Death by Bruegel the Elder
No matter your social status, your age, your beauty, what you were doing or your beliefs, death is the same for everyone. This barren, devastated city is a common theme of the Middle Ages and, moreover, the composition of this painting by Bruegel the Elder seems to be influenced by a reference of the art of the time, especially in the Netherlands: Hieronymus Bosch. This memento mori was kept by Queen Isabella of Farnese in the Palace of La Granja and is now one of the key works of the Prado Museum.
📍Location: floor 0, room 55A
The Gentleman with his Hand on his Chest, El Greco
Portraits by the great masters, like this one by El Greco, captivate and capture the eye without requiring much understanding. It adds to the appeal when you don’t even know who the sitter is, as in the case of The Gentleman with his Hand on his Chest . The black silk doublet and the narrow ruff place him in the Spain of the late seventies of the 16th century. The position of the hand and the half-hidden medal are unusual twists that hint at the painter’s potential, as this is an early work.
There has been much speculation about the identity of the sitter, even suggesting that it was Miguel de Cervantes, but the Prado is betting on the third Marquis of Montemayor, Juan de Silva y de Ribera, a contemporary of El Greco who was appointed by Philip II as warden or military chief of the Alcázar of Toledo and notary major of the kingdom.
📍Location: floor 1, room 9B
The 3rd of May in Madrid or Goya’ s Fusillamientos (The Fusillings)
You cannot leave the Prado Museum without contemplating another of Goya’s great works, which in addition to being the history of Spain, are part of Madrid’s identity.
After the War of Independence, Ferdinand VII returned to Spain in 1814, coinciding with the commemoration of May 2, 1808. In this context, the Regency commissioned two emblematic paintings from Goya: The Fight with the Mamelukes and The Firing Squad of May 3rd. These works reflect the attack of the people of Madrid against Murat’s troops and the subsequent French reprisals.
Although they were thought to have been created for public exhibition, documents indicate that they were destined for the Royal Palace after being financed by Ferdinand VII. Goya captured the drama of the events, highlighting scenes such as the Puerta de la Vega and emotionally charged figures. The 2008 restoration recovered its original brilliance, reaffirming its visual and technical impact.
📍Location: floor 0, room 64
The Mancorbo Channel in the Picos de Europa by Carlos de Haes
Outside of the Prado Museum’s list of great works, there is room for pure beauty and simple enjoyment with works such as those by Carlos de Haes.
This panoramic view of the Picos de Europa is his most relevant painting in Spain in the 19th century. The work of this Belgian, Malaga by adoption, is very prolific and you can discover much of the nature of the peninsula through his paintings.
The theme, however, is uncommon in the Spanish pictorial tradition, so getting to this mountainous chiaroscuro is a break among so many monarchical and ecclesiastical portraits that predominate on the walls of the museum.
📍Location: floor 0, room 63A
Saturn, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Saturno is surely one of the most macabre works by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. It is part of the Black Paintings series and portrays the mythological theme of Saturn, the Roman god of time. Saturn, guided by a premonition of the oracle (who warned that he would be overthrown by one of his children) devoured his children as they were born. So it was until the birth of Zeus, who ended up killing his father and making him vomit his siblings.
In Goya’s painting, the artist portrays the moment of the tearing of one of his victims. Undoubtedly, Goya’s vision is more bloodthirsty and gruesome than other versions of the myth (such as that of Rubens, which you will find in room 016B), guided by the darkness, cruelty and rawness of his Black Paintings. The style highlights the expressionist facet of the painting, which we can clearly see in the face of Saturn, with strong brushstrokes, vast strokes and a dark, almost abysmal background. This expressionism, in which the body appears slightly deformed, turning the god into a hybrid between beast and human appearance, would be an inspiration for contemporary painters.
As a curiosity, and like other Black Paintings, Saturn was on one of the walls of the Quinta del Sordo (according to photographs by the Frenchman Jean Laurent, this work occupied the left side of the window on the first floor of the building).
📍Location: Room 067
The Infantas Isabel Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela, Alonso Sánchez Coello
Here they are: the daughters of Philip II and Isabella of Valois. This portrait was painted around 1575 by Alonso Sánchez Coello, one of the court painters (who would paint them several times and from a very young age). This painting is an example of the most classical and normative court portrait, i.e., a sober style that not only gave an account of the characteristic features of the person portrayed, but also of their environment and the society of the time (almost as if it were a documentary painting with clues of the royal idiosyncrasy of the time).
In the background, a table (covered by a green carpet). In front, the two figures in the same plane, with rich clothing and jewelry on their necks and hair. There is something disturbing about this portrait: they are two girls whose faces seem to be expressionless. The seriousness or, rather, inexpressiveness, together with the cold colors and the sallow skin, make Sánchez Coello’s painting a statement of intent: distance, severity, is what the monarchy wanted to convey with this portrait.
Which would you say is the little sister? We can deduce it by the look: the older one breaks the pact with the fourth wall, looking directly at the painter; the younger one, looking to infinity, tries to reach the wreath of flowers offered by her sister. A curiosity: this is the painting that inspired the name of the podcast about baroque dramas and historical gossip, Philip’s Daughters.
📍Location: Room 055
Isabella of Valois holding a portrait of Philip II, Sofonisba Anguissola
Continuing with the family of Philip II and without needing to change rooms, we come across a painting within a painting. This portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola of the monarch’s third wife is a display of detail and talent.
It stands out for the care in the clothes and the richness that Anguissola manages to transmit in each stroke: a black saya, covered with rubies, diamonds, with silver and gold cuffs, velvet applications, the jewels braided in the hair… In her right hand, Isabella de Valois is holding something like a coat of arms with a portrait of her husband. Such is the detail of this miniature, that one can see the toison around the neck worn by Philip II.
In fact, these miniature portraits of the monarch were commissioned by Isabella de Valois to Sánchez Coello. Curiously, the painting was initially attributed to him, but a study of X-rays and the appearance in lead white indicate that it is the work of Anguissola, who had previously portrayed the queen.
📍Location: Room 055
This article has been written by Isabel Nieto, Helena Menéndez, María F. Carballo and Elena Francés.