Art History Writings The Prado Museum - Expansion and Restoration The Museum of the Prado in Madrid is the main Spanish national art museum and is considered one of the greatest museums of art in the world. Classified as a Royal Museum due to its property of the ruling house, the building that is now home of the Museo Nacional del Prado was designed in 1785 by the architect Juan de Villanueva on the orders of Charles III to house the Natural History cabinet. It was not decided until Ferdinand VII, encouraged by his wife, Queen María Isabel de Braganza, decided to utilize the building as a new Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures. Subsequently, the museum was inaugurated on November 10, 1819 and climaxes an impressive collection of masterpieces pertaining to Spanish, Italian, and Flemish art as a testament to the centuries of devotion to the art accumulation by the Spanish monarchy and church. Their attitudes prevalent in the age of enlightenment contributed to when the Prado was first conceived as well as the development of encompassing classical antiquity through architectural restoration and expansion. Meant to house the collections of such art and antiquity built on the eastern outskirts of the city, neoclassical architect Juan de Villanueva was entrusted the task of designing this monumental museum only achieving the greatest of standards. In order to imitate the principles of European ideal and follow Roman antiquity, it was necessary for the architecture of the building to comply with the standards of perfection. “Villanueva adopted architectural solutions of a rigorous classicism, working from the model of antiquity: the Pantheon, evoked in the entrance rotunda, the apsidal basilica, and the porticoed temple, cited in the majestic transverse hall with its deep apse and the majestic central entrance with the Doric propylaeum on the portico on the Paseo del Prado (the Boulevard of the Prado).”1 His ability to use ancient ordinance as the inspiration for this project truly initiated a grandiose building scheme, which bestowed the museum into a monumental urban space. Recognized for both its stunning architectural resonance to antiquity and its iconic compilation of fine art, the museum had attained a national reputation of an aesthetic educational institution. Upon the deposition of Isabella II in 1868, the museum was nationalized and acquired the new title of today’s recognizable name, the Museo del Prado. The building, which housed the royal collection of arts, gained immense popularity as its collection and visitors began to increase greatly throughout the 19th and 20th century, thus rapidly proving that Villanueva’s existing building was now too small. “Currently receiving two million visitors a year, the Villanueva building required new space for entry vestibules, ticketing, cloakrooms, group tours, and educational facilities, as well as a larger shop, cafeteria, and auditorium.”2 In order to accommodate this issue, consecutive expansion projects were undertaken to the Villanueva’s building to the point that any further intervention was not longer possible. At this point, the only way to solve the museum’s development was to construct an expansion building located on a site that faces the east façade of the Prado, and interconnecting the two buildings from within. 1. Cecilia Gibellini. “The Prado Museum,” in Great museums of Europe: the Dream of the Universal Museum (Milan: Skira Inc, 2002), 185-208. 2. David Cohn. “Rafael Moneo's expansion and restoration of Spain's renowned Prado Museum is simultaneously profound and respectful.” Architectural Record 196, no. 3: 118-125
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