scdreamer

I will be in Madrid on my own for two days before departing for a language program in Salamanca. I know I will be jet-lagged the first day, so I'm not making too many plans until the second day. I would like to walk to the Prado (I am staying near the Plaza Mayor) and visit the museum for maybe three or four hours.

When I was in Paris a couple years ago, I had a self-guided tour plan for the Louvre - I found it on the Louvre website and printed it out. It basically gave directions as to how to see the more "important" pieces in a limited amount of time.

I can't find anything similar for the Prado - the only thing I see online is a Rick Steves guide, which he says is probably outdated due to rearrangements at the museum ... and I would have to buy his whole book just to get the Prado part.

Anyone know if and where there might be such a guide?

Shanti

Somewhere on the Praco website are recommendations on what to see depending if you are spending 1, 2, or 3 hours there. Sorry but I don't remember the link but I first learned about it here on Fodor's so perhaps someone else will be able to post it.

I visited the Prado on my own and was quite satisfied.

Enjoy your visit.

111op

The Prado's website has changed pretty significantly since I last checked it, but there's a list of 15 masterpieces here:

http://www.museodelprado.es/en/visit...5-masterpieces

Also check this guide:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...do-museum.html

The Telegraph guide is old (I think Prado was recently renovated), but it will at least give you a list of paintings to look for to supplement the list on Prado's website.

Also like any other museum, there's a short guide to Prado that you can pick up when you get there.

Paintings that frequently come up are the top 3 on the Telegraph list (the Rapahel "Cardinal," Rogier's "Descent from the Cross," Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights") and Velasquez's "Las Meninas" (#20 on this list).

Other paintings worth looking for:

Paintings by Zurbaran (there are two famous works here: "Agnus Dei" (a painting of a lamb) and a still life with pottery)

Other paintings by Velasquez, among them: "Surrender of Breda"

A Bruegel that should be in the same room as the Bosch

111op

Also worth checking: Goya's late paintings (usually called the "Black Paintings"). They were on the 2nd floor of the museum. I think there's some authorship dispute about them.

Among these is a painting of a dog that seems to look into the void. This is the painting that Miro wanted to see before he died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Yo.../The_Dog_(Goya)

Maribel

scdreamer,
You can also rent an audio guide for the permanent collection for 3.50, available in several languages.

I highly recommend that you try to see the temporary exhibit, Visions of Spain: Joaquín Sorolla.
I think you'll find the works of Spain's most prominent Impressionist quite impressive.
This exhibit has been billed as the Prado's largest Sorolla retrospective in its history, and it includes his large murals from the Hispanic Society in NY. It runs until Sept. 6. I'll be seeing it in a few weeks and have bought my ticket online.

You can read a bit about it here-

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/joaq...ospective.html

ribeirasacra

I read this on TA, but the website does not state anything about private guides.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...um-Madrid.html

ribeirasacra

Should add........When in Galicia you can see some paintings by El Greco in Monforte.
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/htm.../0606grec.html

scdreamer

Thanks for all the replies ... I guess what I was hoping to find does not exist, at least not anywhere I can easily access it ahead of time.

The Telegraph guide (thanks, 111op) seems to be the closest to what I hoped to find, though, so I have bookmarked it.

On the Louvre website there was a step-by-step directional guide ("turn left at the marble staircase," for example) one could print out and then follow, much like a narrative map, for finding and viewing what were determined to be the more important works on exhibit at the museum. Along with the directions was a brief historical and critical review of each piece.

I think at the Prado, I will purchase the 3.5 Euro headset guide - that should work just as well, I suppose.

111op

The Telegraph series is useful -- Nick Trend published an overview for some of the most important and popular museums. But it's also old.

On the old Prado website, there used to be a review of the more important pieces and a note of their locations. The information may still be there, but I just didn't look very hard for it.

I haven't been to the new Prado since its renovation (I was last there about two years ago), but unless things have really changed greatly, the museum is relatively easy to navigate. It's much smaller than the Louvre and there are basically just three floors.

I'll give you the locations of some of the more famous paintings from my Short Guide to Prado, but my copy was published in 2001. But you should be able to locate the paintings easily even if the locations have changed slightly.

Ground Floor

Raphael "Cardinal" (Room 49)
Rogier van der Weyden "Descent" (Room 58)
Bosch "Garden of Earthly Delights" (Room 56a)
Titian "Charles V" (Room 61)

First Floor

Velasquez "Las Meninas" (Room 12)
Velasquez "Surrender of Breda" (Room 16)
Zurbaran "Still Life" (Room 18)
Goya "Family of Charles IV" (Room 32)
Goya "May 3" (Room 39)

Second Floor

Goya "Majas" (Room 89)

If you're interested, you can look up a couple of the paintings ahead of time and get a sense for why they are so important. That should be relatively easy to do.

Also, there's a Prado-Google collaboration.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/prado/

I had read about this, but I haven't tried it out. My computer is too old to handle the demands of Google Earth gracefully. (Notice that the YouTube clipping has the tears from Rogier's "Descent.")

Have a great visit!

111op

Well basically I was there pre the Moneo addition (opened in Oct. 2007). See for example, here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...syo&refer=muse

You can find lots of articles online.

So you've to take the locations I gave for the paintings with a grain of salt. I'm not sure what has moved and what hasn't.

Apparently even the main entrance to the museum has moved.