Earliest known copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa found at Spain’s Prado Museum

MADRID (AP).- A “Mona Lisa” copy owned by Spain’s Prado Museum was almost certainly painted by one of Leonardo da Vinci’s apprentices alongside the master himself as he did the original, museum officials said Wednesday. The stunning find of what the Prado now says is probably the earliest known copy of La Gioconda will give art lovers and experts an idea of what the Mona Lisa looked like back in the 16th century, said Gabriele Finaldi, the museum’s deputy director collections. [...]

Spain’s Prado Museum has the rare opportunity of hosting a large Hermitage exhibition

MADRID (AP).- Spain’s Prado museum is hosting a large exhibition of European art lent by Russia’s Hermitage, a rare opportunity to see such work outside the vast St. Petersburg museum. Two large paintings by Rembrandt, an imposing Caravaggio and a historic segment of early 20th-century art, an area in which the Hermitage’s collection excels, are among the close to 180 items. Works by Spanish artists Diego Velazquez, Pablo Picasso and Diego de Rivera temporarily return home, flanked by famous pieces by [...]

The Museo del Prado is increasing its activities by opening every day of the week

MADRID.- The Museo del Prado took the decision to increase its opening hours to every day of the week in order to improve and expand its cultural activities and thus guarantee its commitment to covering 60% of its budget through self-financing. This new initiative starts with the exhibition ‘The Hermitage in the Prado’, which will be open every day of the week, from Mondays to Sundays, from the day it opens on 8 November. The Museum’s Permanent Collection will also have new opening [...]

Newly discovered portrait by Spanish artist Diego Velazquez to be sold at Bonhams

LONDON.- A previously unknown portrait by the Spanish artist Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) will be the highlight of the Old Master Paintings auction on Wednesday 7th December 2011 at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, London. The work is a Portrait of a gentleman, bust-length, in a black tunic and white golilla collar and measures 47 x 39cm. It is estimated to sell for £2,000,000-3,000,000. Andrew Mckenzie, Director of Old Master Paintings at Bonhams, comments, “This is an extraordinarily beautiful [...]

Museo de Arte de Ponce announces exhibition of masterpieces from the Prado Museum

PONCE.- Museo de Arte de Ponce and Banco Santander announced the exhibit El Greco to Goya: Masterpieces from the Prado Museum, a selection of 25 paintings from the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. This prominent exhibit, which includes works by renowned artists such as Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Zurbarán, will be open to the public at Museo de Arte de Ponce from March 25 to July 9, 2012. The Prado’s director for conservation and research, [...]

Prado Displays Caravaggio’s Entombment of Christ, on Loan from the Vatican Museums

MADRID.- To coincide with the celebration of World Youth Day and with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Madrid, the Museo del Prado will be displaying. The Entombment of Christ, a major masterpiece by Caravaggio loaned from the Vatican Museums. For the first time in Spain, this monumental canvas will be exhibited for two months at the Prado thanks to sponsorship from the Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado and as part of the “Invited Work” exhibition programme. This exceptional loan is also part [...]

Rome: Nature and the Ideal Landscapes 1600-1650 at the Prado Museum in Madrid

MADRID.- Featuring more than 100 works, the exhibition Rome: Nature and the Ideal. Landscapes 1600-1650 will be exhibited at the Museo del Prado after its showing at the Grand Palais in Paris. The exhibition project is one of the most ambitious to be undertaken by the Prado, which has worked closely with the Musée du Louvre. Works have been loaned from fifty different sources in order to offer the most important selection of landscape of this period to be exhibited to [...]

Museo del Prado Presents a Comprehensive Survey of the Work of Jean Siméon Chardin

MADRID.- The Museo del Prado presents the exhibition Chardin, a comprehensive survey of the work of Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779). Chardin is one of the leading names in 18th-century French painting but has never been the subject of an exhibition in Spain, which only houses three of his paintings, all in the Museo Thyssen. After being shown at the Palazzo dei Diamante in Ferrara, the exhibition is presented in Madrid thanks to the sponsorship of Fundación AXA. It comprises 57 paintings by [...]

Prado Museum Loses Visitors in 2010 but More Students and Tourists Visit the Museum

MADRID.- The Museo del Prado, in 2010, concluded the third consecutive year surpassing the 2.7 million annual visitors, a figure that was reached for the first time since the opening of its expansion. The final number of visitors received by the Museum during this year, 2,732,000, has been almost equal to that recorded in 2009, 2,764,155, and in 2008, 2,759,029 the first full year period of the expansion in full operation. As for the reasons to visit, a 57.58% of [...]

Pierre-Auguste Renoir at Madrid’s El Prado Museum

MADRID.- The artistic career of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), one of the leading figures of Impressionism, is characterised by an all-absorbing passion for painting that led him to achieve great renown and popularity among his contemporaries. The outstanding group of 31 works by the artist, which are the finest among the collection of paintings by Renoir assembled by the American collector Robert Sterling Clark (1877-1956), founder of the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute (Williamstown), will be displayed at the Prado in [...]

SMU’s Meadows and Prado Museum Officials Sign Partnership Agreement in Madrid

MADRID.- This past week. 46 Dallasites, including Mayor Tom Leppert, gathered in Madrid to witness the official signing of a partnership agreement between the The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University and the Prado Museum in Madrid. The signing took place in one of the galleries of the Prado surrounded by Spanish Renaissance paintings, with Prado Director Miguel Zugaza, Deputy Director Gabriele Finaldi, and Chair of the Board Placido Arango orchestrating the event. The signing of the agreement at the [...]

The Museo del Prado Exhibits Treasures from Its Library

MADRID.- The exhibition is organized into three sections. The first, Bibliotheca artis (Library of Art), is the most important, featuring major works from the European literature on art, starting with the great treatises of the Italian Renaissance. On display are first editions of the key texts on painting by Leon Battista Alberti (1547) and Leonardo da Vinci (1651), as well as the first systematic treatise on perspective by Daniele Barbaro, who is the subject of a portrait by Titian in [...]

Prado Extends the Opening Hours of its Turner Exhibition

MADRID.- Thanks to the support of Turismo Madrid, from 1 July, until 31 August visitors to the Museum can take advantage of two additional hours (Tuesdays to Saturdays) to visit this season’s major exhibition “Turner and the Masters”. In addition, and coinciding with the launch of this initiative, the Museum is opening its Terrace-Café Prado, located in a courtyard of the North Pavilion of the Villanueva Building. It offers free access and late opening hours (until 10pm) throughout the summer [...]

Prado and Meadows Museum Announce Three-Year Partnership

DALLAS, TX.- The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the Prado Museum in Madrid today announced the launch of a three-year partnership, marking the first such international program for Spain’s national museum. The multifaceted collaboration encompasses the loan of major paintings from the Prado, interdisciplinary research at SMU, an unprecedented internship exchange between the two museums, and a range of public programs. The Meadows is home to one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art [...]

Prado Museum Exhibits Tapestry Series by Willem de Pannemaker

MADRID.- The Museo del Prado will be exhibiting the eight mythological tapestries that comprise the only complete surviving example of this series on the loves of Mercury and Herse, one of the 246 tales recounted in the 15 books of Ovid’s great poem known as the Metamorphoses. For the first time since their dispersion in the early 20th century, the exhibition reunites these eight tapestry panels by Willem de Pannemaker, tapestry-maker and supplier to the royal courts of the Flemish [...]

Next Page »