PRADO

Lovers of Spanish art will know all about this famous museum. If you cannot travel to Madrid, this is the very next best thing. The Museo del Prado not only houses the largest collection of Spanish painting spanning the 15th to the 19th century, but also represents an entire history of the classical art of Western Europe and treasures from the royal collections, featuring a wide variety of Masters, regions, styles and genres with its 8,000 paintings, 5,000 drawings, 2,000 prints, 700 sculptures and 2,000 other works of art. The Monastery of El Escorial under Philip II collected 1,150 mostly religious paintings and the El Pardo 'Hunting Lodge' 117 paintings, mainly portraits. Blonde plaited hair, Doña Margarita of Austria in long black silk hooded robe is pictured in oil on canvas, 1665, and the Emperor Charles V with a dog on the following page, and portraits by Goya, Velázquez and Anguissola (1530-1626). Spanish painting from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, the Golden Age, Neo-Classicism to Modernity, Northern European painting and Italian painting are selected and expertly covered in this exquisitely produced gallery. 280pp in large softback, colour plates on every page plus photos and introduction. 8¼" x 9½".