1. Madrid, Spain 1/14/2015 Period 4 Andrea Gomez

2. The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It features one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, and unquestionably the best single collection of Spanish art. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819 El Prado is one of the most visited sites in the world, and is considered one the greatest museums of art in the world. The numerous works by Francisco de Goya, the single most extensively represented artist, as well as by Diego Velázquez, El Greco, Titian, Peter Paul Rubens and Hieronymus Bosch are some of the highlights of the collection.

3. Francisco de Goya, La maja desnuda, oil on canvas, (circa 1797–1800) Francisco de Goya, La maja vestida, oil on canvas, (circa 1797–1800)

4. The Prado’s sculpture collection numbers more than 900 works, in addition to around 200 fragments. Most are classical, Renaissance and Baroque sculptures and works from the 18th- and 19th-centuries, but the Museum also possesses some Oriental and Medieval pieces. Greco Roman Sculpture

5. The Museo del Prado possesses almost 200 paintings of the 17th-century Dutch School. The Museo del Prado has the largest and most important collection of Spanish painting in the world, numbering more than 4,800 paintings and dating from the Romanesque period to the 19th-century. In terms of quality and quantity the Prado’s collection of Italian paintings, numbering more than 1,000 works, is second only to its Spanish holdings. Many of these works were formerly in the royal collection.

6. The Museo Nacional del Prado is a very interesting and popular art museum. The museum combines many collections of art from many different cultures together. The museum receives over thousands of visitors a year and is ranked 18 th globally. In 2013 the Prado received 2.3 million visitors throughout that year. The collections in the museum currently comprise around 7,600 paintings, 1,000 sculptures, 4,800 prints and 8,200 drawings, in addition to a large number of other works of art and historic documents. The building that is now the 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. www.museodelprado.es