Prado Museum. 7 paintings worth seeing

I started my acquaintance with the Prado Museum with a book gift edition. In those ancient times, wired Internet was just a dream, and it was more realistic to see the works of artists in printed form.

Then I learned that the Prado Museum is considered one of the most outstanding museums in the world and is one of the twenty most visited.

There was a burning desire to visit it, although at that time a trip to Spain seemed something unattainable (I moved exclusively by trains, even if it took two days to travel from one city to another! The plane was too luxurious a means of transportation).

However, 4 years after purchasing the book about the museum, I saw it with my own eyes.

Yes, I was not disappointed. I was especially struck by the collections of Velazquez, Rubens, Bosch и Goya. In general, this museum has something to impress a lover of painting.

I want to share my mini-collection of the most favorite works.

1.Francisco Goya. Milkmaid from Bordeaux. 1825-1827

Goya painted the picture "The Milkmaid from Bordeaux" in the last years of his life, when he was already living in France. The picture is sad, minor and at the same time harmonious, concise. For me, this picture is the same as listening to a pleasant and light, but sad melody.

The picture was painted in the style of impressionism, although half a century will pass before its heyday. Goya's work seriously influenced the formation of the artistic style of Mane и Renoir.

2. Diego Velasquez. Meninas. 1656

“Las Meninas” by Velasquez is one of the few custom-made family portraits, during the creation of which no one limited the artist. That is why it is so unusual and interesting. Could only behave like this Francisco Goya: 150 years later he painted portrait of another royal family, also allowing himself liberties, albeit of a different kind.

And what is actually interesting in the plot of the picture? The alleged protagonists are off-screen (the royal couple) and are shown in a mirror. We see what they see: Velazquez painting them, his workshop and his daughter with maidservants, who were called meninas.

An interesting detail: there are no chandeliers in the room (only hooks for hanging them). It turns out that the artist worked only in daylight. And in the evening he was busy with court affairs, which greatly distracted him from painting.

Read about the masterpiece in the article Las Meninas by Velazquez. About the picture with a double bottom ".

3. Claude Lorrain. Departure of Saint Paula from Ostia. 1639-1640 Hall 2.

I first met Lorrain in ... a rented apartment. There hung a reproduction of this landscape painter. Even she conveyed how the artist knew how to depict light. Lorrain, by the way, is the first artist who thoroughly studied light and its refraction.

Therefore, it is not surprising that, despite the extreme unpopularity of landscape painting in the Baroque era, Lorrain was nevertheless a famous and recognized master during his lifetime.

4. Peter Paul Rubens. Judgment of Paris. 1638 Room 29.

The Prado Museum houses one of the most significant collections of Rubens' works (78 works!). His pastoral works are very pleasing to the eye and created primarily for the pleasure of contemplation.

From an aesthetic point of view, it is difficult to single out any one among the works of Rubens. However, I especially like the painting “The Judgment of Paris”, rather because of the myth itself, the plot of which was depicted by the artist - the choice of the “most beautiful woman” led to the long Trojan War.

Read about another masterpiece of the master in the article Lion Hunt by Rubens. Emotions, dynamics and luxury in one picture».

5. El Greco. Fable. 1580 Room 8b.

Despite the fact that El Greco has much more famous canvases, it is this painting that appeals to me the most. It is not quite typical for the artist, who often painted on biblical themes with characteristic elongated bodies and faces of the depicted characters (the painter, by the way, looks like the heroes of his paintings - the same thin with a long face).

As the name suggests, this is an allegory painting. On the website of the Prado Museum, a hypothesis is put forward that a ember flaring up from a small breath means an easily flashing sexual desire.

6. Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights. 1500-1505 Hall 56a.

If you like Bosch, the Prado Museum has the largest collection of his works (12 works).

Of course, the most famous of them - The Garden of Earthly Delights. You can stand in front of this picture for a very long time, considering a large number of details on the three parts of the triptych.

Bosch, like many of his contemporaries in the Middle Ages, was a very pious man. It is even more surprising that you would not expect such a game of imagination from a religious painter!

Read more about the painting in the articles: Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights": what is the meaning of the most fantastic picture of the Middle Ages".

7. Robert Campin. Holy Barbara. 1438 Room 58.

Of course, I was shocked by this painting (this is the right wing of the triptych; the left wing is also kept in the Prado; the central part is lost). It was hard for me to believe that in the 15th century they created a literally photographic image. This is how much skill, time and patience is needed!

Now, of course, I fully agree with the version of the English artist David Hockney that such paintings were painted using concave mirrors. They projected displayed objects onto the canvas and simply circled the master - hence such realism and detail.

After all, it is not for nothing that Campin's work is so similar to the work of another more famous Flemish artist, Jan van Eyck, who also owned this technique.

However, this picture does not lose its value. After all, we have in fact a photographic image of the life of people of the 15th century!

Only by putting my favorite works of the Prado Museum in a row, I realized that the time coverage turned out to be serious - the 15-19th century. This was not done intentionally, I did not have the goal of showing different eras. Just masterpieces that are hard not to appreciate were created at all times.

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