WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT MADRID IF YOU ARE AN ART LOVER: 5 MASTERPIECES TO SEE
Why should you visit Madrid if you are an art lover and which are the works you must see?
In this post you’ll find the list of the masterpieces you can’t miss and which are housed in the three top museums in the capital of Spain: the Prado Museum, The Reina Sofía Museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
A short and useful itinerary for those who have very little time or for those who have already visited Madrid but would like to come back to admire the fundamental works housed in these museums.
The admission to these three museums is free at specific times or on specific days, so it’s easy to plan a quick visit only to see some works of art.
Why should you visit Madrid. 5 masterpieces to see
Hieronymus Bosch, il Giardino delle Delizie – dettaglio
1. HIERONYMUS BOSCH, THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS (1500-1510) – PRADO MUSEUM
Hieronymus Bosch is one of the most mysterious and enigmatic artists in art history, author of works which still today are difficult to understand.
The Garden of Earthly Delightshangs in the Prado Museum, and depicts a complex scene in which the only clear thing is that all characters dedicate themselves to the pleasures of the flesh.
The Garden of Earthly Delights is an amazing painting which over the centuries has been a source of inspiration for poets and painters, and especially it was a point of reference for Surrealism and Salvador Dalí.
Vittore Carpaccio, giovane cavaliere in un paesaggio – detail
2. VITTORE CARPACCIO, YOUNG KNIGHT IN A LANDSCAPE (1510) – THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA MUSEUM
It’s one of the most mysterious works in theThyssen-Bornemisza collection and was painted by Vittore Carpaccio in 1510.
It depicts a young knight whose identity is not clear. He may be a member of the Order of the Ermine, since an ermine appears in the foreground on the left under a sheet of paper where you can read the motto of the order: “MALO MORI/ QUAM/ FOEDARI” (“I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN BE DISHONOURED”)
For a long time the painting was attributed to Dürer.
READ ALSO – Museums in Madrid: the most important ones
Tiziano Vecellio, ritratto di Carlo V a cavallo
3. TITIAN, EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT OF CHARLES V (ALSO EMPEROR CHARLES V ON HORSEBACK) (1548) – PRADO MUSEUM
This painting is Titian’s most important commission.
It’s the portrait of Emperor Charles V, the most powerful man in the mid-16thcentury, painted to celebrate his victory in the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg.
Titian represents Charles V as an Emperor of Ancient Rome, on horseback and wearing hisarmour, which is now housed at the Royal Palace of Madrid.
READ ALSO – Masterpieces in The Prado Museum
Francisco Goya, il 3 maggio 1808
4. FRANCISCO GOYA, THE THIRD OF MAY 1808 (1814) – PRADO MUSEUM
Goya’s paintings housed at the Prado Museum are over 1,600 but this one represents a particular moment in Spain’s history.
In fact, the painting portrays the execution of a group of men by Napoleon’s firing squad after Napoleon’s military invasion of Spain in 1808.
Each character shows fear in a different way through hand gesture and position or the expression in their eyes.
A new way to narrate war!
5. PABLO PICASSO, GUERNICA (1937) – REINA SOFíA MUSEUM
Pablo Picasso’s Guernica is one of the most famous paintings in art history.
It depicts the German bombing of the town of Guernica in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War and was exhibited at the Spanish Pavilion of the Paris International Exposition in 1937.
This work has become the universal symbol of the horrors of war.
READ ALSO – Guernica by Picasso: 5 things to know