The Prado in Madrid has one of the great collections in Europe, but don't miss the remarkable MNAC — it's filled with Catalonian art, most remarkably the 1000-year-old Romanesque frescoes removed from churches in remote regions for protection.
Melchor Pérez de Holguín, Entry of the Viceroy Archbishop Morcillo into Potosí
Pérez de Holguín creates an opulent vision of the city of Potosí, disregarding the infamous stories of poverty and exploitation in the mines of the Cerro Rico
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables
The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables is the most famous painting by the most acclaimed Spanish painter of the latter half of the seventeenth century
Antoni Gaudí, Park Güell
If visitors know one thing about Barcelona before boarding a plane, it is the surname of the city’s most celebrated architect, Antoni Gaudí
Conservation: Cast of the Pórtico de la Gloria
In 1866, the Victoria & Albert Museum commissioned an Italian plaster maker to journey to Spain to make a copy of a monument of Romanesque art. See how the museum takes care of it more than 150 years later.
Alejo Fernández, The Virgin of the Navigators
If we read Alejo Fernández's The Virgin of the Navigators closely, we can learn an enormous amount about Spain’s role in exploration, trade and commerce, conquest and colonization, and slavery.
Alonso Berruguete, Abraham and Isaac
Alonso Berruguete is the most famous sculptor that you have never heard of.
Gil de Siloé, The Tomb of Juan II of Castile and Isabel of Portugal
If you suddenly found yourself the heir to a royal throne, what steps would you take to advertise that you are indeed the rightful inheritor?
Bartolomé Bermejo, Piedad with Canon Lluís Desplà
Two years before the Spanish expel the Jews and begin their invasion of the Americas, an artist paints an image of redemption.
Spotlight — Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights
An imagined garden teeming with curious creatures and bizarre structures. What are we to think?
Juan Martínez Montañés and Francisco Pacheco, Christ of Clemency
The sculptor Martínez Montañés was the “God of Wood,” but it’s the painter Pacheco who brought this work to life.
El Escorial, Spain
The severe exterior of this palace complex belies its highly decorative interior, once filled with art.
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