Hand-Painted Fine Art Reproductions of Famous Paintings

Museo del Prado, art museum in Madrid, Spain. Officially called the Museo Nacional del Prado, the museum is also widely known in English as, simply, The Prado. The museum houses over 8,000 paintings as well as thousands of sculptures, drawings, and pieces of furniture and decorative art.

The collection consists mainly of works added to the Spanish royal collection from the 16th century to the early 19th century. Artists from countries that were friendly with Spain contributed to the royal collection, so many outstanding examples of the Italian and Flemish schools of painting are represented. Of particular note is a series of paintings by Titian commissioned by Charles V and Philip II in the 16th century, and a series painted by Rubens for Philip IV in the early 17th century. In addition, the Prado houses an outstanding collection of paintings from the Spanish school, including works by Velazquez, Goya, and El Greco.

The former royal collections have been supplemented by a great number of acquisitions, including an important collection of classical sculpture collected mainly during the 17th and 18th centuries and many paintings from churches and convents that were added during the late 19th century.

The Prado was founded in 1819 by King Fernando VII at the initiative of his wife, Do?±a Isabel of Braganza. The original building, a great work of neoclassical architecture by the Spanish architect D. Juan de Villanueva, has had several extensions added to it during the 20th century. Today the collection is divided between the Villanueva building, which houses paintings from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, and the Cas??n del Buen Retins, which houses 19th century works formerly displayed in the Prado and the Modern Art Museum.

with help of Encarta