Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Guinea was formally declared an “overseas
province” in 1951, this low-lying agricul-
tural colony consisted of some 14,000
square miles on the mainland and the off-
shore Bijagos Archipelago, with its capital
at Bissau. Anticolonial guerrilla warfare
broke out in 1962 as part of the general pat-
tern of insurrection in Portugal's African
dependencies. Following the revolution in
L
ISBON
in 1974, this territory was granted
independence, taking the name Republic of
Guinea-Bissau.
days, it is not surprising that they did not
seek a reversion of ownership.
The Prado escaped the vicissitudes of for-
eign invasion and civil strife throughout the
modern era, although parts of its collections
were moved for safety at certain times. By
the beginning of the 21st century it had
expanded to include some 8,000 works of
art, housed in three distinct units.
The main building of the Prado displays
approximately 2,000 paintings and sculp-
tures by what are considered the “old mas-
ters.” All of the great artists of Spain's
Golden Age (S
IGLO
DE
O
RO
) are exhibited
here. The works of D
IEGO
DE
V
ELÁZQUEZ
,
the “king” of painters, who painted the roy-
als and courtiers of Spain, are arrayed in
dazzling profusion, including his most
famous work
Las Meninas.
This great canvas
affords a view not only of an infanta and
her ladies in waiting but of her parents
looking on and the artist himself at work.
Spanish painters scarcely less revered than
Velázquez are also represented by some of
their finest works, as well as masterpieces
of Italian, Flemish, and German painting
collected by the rulers of earlier times. A
short distance away, the Casón del Buen
Retiro, a former royal residence, houses
19th-century artworks scarcely less fasci-
nating than those of the Golden Age. The
third of these great galleries that house
Spain's premier national collections is the
Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Named for the
consort of King J
UAN
C
ARLOS
I and opened
in 1986, the center is home to the work of
Spain's most famous artists of the 20th cen-
tury, including P
ABLO
P
ICASSO
and his
Guer-
nica
canvas. This portrayal of a horrendous
incident of the S
PANISH
CIVIL
WAR
in which
the Basques' most revered historical land-
mark was bombed by Franco's German
Prado, Museo Nacional del
One of the greatest art collections in the
world bears the surprisingly prosaic desig-
nation of “El Prado,” which means origi-
nally “the grassy field.” Named for a broad
stretch of land on the edge of M
ADRID
where
some of the great nobles of Spain had built
houses, this location was selected by
C
HARLES
III in the late 18th century as the
site for a museum of natural history. As an
enlightened monarch, he was anxious to
promote scientific awareness and learning
in his country. By the early 19th century
the massive building that had emerged had
been redesignated as the repository for the
large collection of paintings and sculpture
assembled by the Spanish Bourbons. Ironi-
cally it was J
OSEPH
I, the usurper Joseph
Bonaparte, who set in motion the process
that resulted in the art museum being for-
mally established. It was opened as the
Royal Museum by F
ERDINAND
VII in 1819.
After the overthrow of I
SABELLA
II in 1868
the collection was declared the property of
the state, and the name was changed to the
National Museum, although El Prado
remained generally used. Given the check-
ered career of the Bourbon dynasty in later
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