Museo Del Prado

The Prado does not loan out Las Meninas or Goya’s Black Paintings. Unlike the Louvre or the National Gallery, which rotate works through loans and temporary exhibitions, the Prado’s core works stay in the building. This means that on any given weekday morning in Madrid, you can stand in front of Las Meninas for as long as you want without any uncertainty about whether it will be there.

The Collection

Standard admission is EUR 15 per adult. Free entry runs on weekday evenings (6pm to 8pm Monday to Saturday); this is the busiest period for visitors. A morning visit from 10am to 1pm on a weekday is the better choice for space and light. Book online at museodelprado.es; the walk-up queue can exceed 45 minutes on weekends. The Paseo del Arte combined card (EUR 32) covers the Prado, Reina Sofía, and Thyssen-Bornemisza.

What to See

Las Meninas by Velázquez (1656): The painting depicts the artist himself painting a canvas the viewer cannot see, with the Infanta Margarita and her attendants in the foreground, and the reflected images of the king and queen in a background mirror. The multiple layers of representation have made this the most analysed painting in art history. Spend fifteen minutes actually looking at what Velázquez did.

Goya: The museum holds the largest Goya collection in the world. The Black Paintings (Pinturas Negras), created directly on the walls of his house between 1820 and 1823 by an 74-year-old man who had survived the French occupation, the Inquisition, and had been deaf for three decades, are in a dedicated gallery. Saturn Devouring His Son is the most extreme; Witches’ Sabbath is the largest. These are private works, not commissions, and they are among the most psychologically unguarded paintings of the 19th century.

The 3rd of May 1808 (painted 1814) depicts French reprisal executions of Spanish civilians; the figure in white before the firing squad has become an icon of political painting.

Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights: The 389 by 220 centimetre triptych. Left panel: Eden. Central panel: an elaborate fantasy of nude figures and inexplicable objects. Right panel: Hell. Flemish, 1480s to 1510s. The central panel alone takes time.

Titian: The Prado’s Titian collection is the finest outside the Venetian churches. The equestrian portrait of Emperor Charles V (1548) defined European royal portraiture for two centuries.

Madrid Beyond the Prado

The Museo Reina Sofía (EUR 12, free Sunday afternoons) holds Picasso’s Guernica and substantial Dalí and Miró collections. The Thyssen-Bornemisza (EUR 13) is stronger in 20th-century art. Retiro Park, directly east, has the 1887 Palacio de Cristal for temporary exhibitions, a boating lake, and 350 acres of free public space.

Luini on Via Santa Radegonda in the Duomo area of Milan is… actually, wrong city. The right recommendation in Madrid is La Sanabresa on Amor de Dios, 20 minutes from the Prado: a set lunch menu (menú del día) for EUR 13 to 15 including three courses and wine. That is how Madrid eats its main midday meal.