Adjusting to Life in Spain: A Private Tour of the Prado Museum

Click here to read the previous post, Adjusting to Life in Spain: International Shit I Have to Get Used To

If you happen to be in a city like Madrid and there happens to be a world famous museum there, you are morally obligated to go. Okay, not morally. Or even obligated. But really, you should check it out.

I love art, but don’t really know a lot about it, so I took a special tour of the Museo del Prado (Prado Museum) from Devour Tours: VIP Alone in the Prado: Exclusive Early Access Museum Tour.

An hour and a quarter before the museum opens to the public, I meet the tour guide and the other participants – which, in this case is just an Australian/American couple – in front of the Goya statue on the north end of the museum near the Puerta de Goya (gate of Goya) entrance.

But that’s not where we enter.

On the western side on Paseo del Prado (a main boulevard) is the rather majestic front of the museum. This was the original main entrance, called the Puerta de Velázquez (gate of Velázquez, because of the sculpture of the Spanish painter Velázquez) on the north side.

But that’s not where we enter either.

During a major expansion in 2007, they made a new entrance called the Puerta de los Jerónimos (gate of the Hieronymites, or the Order of Saint Jerome) on the eastern side of the museum. They named it after the Iglesia de San Jerónimo el Real (Church of San Jerónimo el Real) that’s close by.

That’s where we enter. Aaaanyway….

Our tour guide/art historian gives us some history about the museum as we walk in. The art here was collected during the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties. Avid patrons of the arts, the kings of Spain during this time also commissioned works from the best (or most well-known) artists of their time, such as Francisco Goya:

Diego Velázquez:

And El Greco:

The Spanish royal collection also eventually included works from Italian and Flemish painters, like Titian, Rubens, and Bosch (Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” pictured below):

In 1819, King Ferdinand VII officially established the Museo del Prado so that his royal collection could be enjoyed by the commoners – but only on one or two days a week.

Upon entering, we pass through security and nod hello to the two museum guards who will be tailing us to make sure we don’t slip a floor-to-ceiling painting into our backpacks. We go through a short, narrow corridor and then step into the main hall.

I am immediately awestruck. It’s one thing to visit a museum with a hundred million other people, but it’s a whole other experience to wander through the majestic rooms and halls of a famous art museum and hear only the sound of your footsteps.

And our art historian guide is incredible. As she takes us through the deserted galleries, she points out secret little details that I never would’ve caught on my own, such as:

An artist painting himself into a commissioned royal portrait, and not just as a minor figure, but as a central participant in the scene (Diego Velázquez’s "Las Meninas," shown above)
A painting that shifts perspective of the room when viewed from off to the side ("The Washing of the Feet" by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo)
The back panels of Hieronymus Bosch’s 3-paneled “The Garden of Earthly Delights” which, when the two outside panels are closed like doors, reveal another painting

She talks about the artwork in such a way that brings the paintings to life for me, often by providing stories that put the artwork into the context of the artist’s life and the time in which he lived. But it’s also just her genuine enthusiasm that lights up her eyes that is contagious. God I wish I’d had her as my art history prof in university!

The best part of being in the empty Prado is that you get to, as the Devour Tours page says, “Experience the heightened intensity of Goya's haunting Black Paintings, which take on an even more profound and somber atmosphere when viewed in a silent, empty gallery.” So true. It was quite haunting to stand in this quiet, dimly lit room and take in the paintings Goya did later in life when he was depressed.

An hour and a half later, our lovely guide bids us goodbye and reminds us that we are free to stay at the museum as long as we want. By this time, the Prado has opened up to the public and crowds of people are swarming in like a cloud of bees looking for pollen. I wander around a little more, but frankly, it isn’t nearly as pleasant when you’re trying to peer around a big group of heads to see a painting, or serpentining through the halls to avoid bored kids and oblivious adults.

So I leave and go to a nearby café to take a load off, sip a cup of tea and just enjoy the feeling of having had an emotionally and intellectually fulfilling experience.

To get a look at the Museo del Prado, check out these videos:

Welcome. Museo Nacional del Prado (this is basically an ad from the Museo Nacional del Prado, but it gives a good overview of the museum with some lovely music)
The ULTIMATE Travel Guide: Prado Museum (this one gives you more info about the artwork, but it’s narrated by what sounds like a bored Valley Girl)

CLICK HERE TO READ the next post, ADJUSTING TO LIFE IN SPAIN: Exploring the Palacio Neighborhood

Note: All photos taken or created (using DALL-E) by Selena Templeton, unless otherwise noted.

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