A Few Masterpieces & some Living Statues

If I was to name one “not be missed place” on a visit to Madrid, I would have no hesitation in selecting the “Prado National Museum”. The Prado Museum is renowned as being the largest art gallery in the world housing more than 8,600 paintings. But for space limitation they exhibits less than 2,000 paintings but for me I was very lucky as there were a collection of Picasso on display as part of an exchange program. In addition to painting s, it also exhibits sculptures, drawings, coins and other works of arts.

The rich life story of El Prado started during the reign of Charles III, when he had the vision to create a single art collection. But it was on 19th November 1819, during the reign of Fernando VII, the Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture was created. With the abolition of monarchy in Spain the museum became a national property and came to be known as the Prado National Museum.

The works of art have survived several challenges since the inception and were transferred to many locations during the Spanish Civil War and finally ended up in the Swiss city of Geneva. They were later returned to Madrid during the Second World War. This is quite in contrast to the artifacts that were stolen from India and were never returned back. We too never got to get those back with our non violent approach to life!

In addition to the work of arts available within the Museum, there are plenty of “Living Statues” visible around the cityscape. Those are the men and women who pose for and freeze their gesture to imitate a statue. Some look at this as a livelihood or an easy way of getting some money. But they are slowly getting the recognition of an art form. I have learnt that it is never easy to stay in a particular position and not even moving their eyeball!





It is definitely a hard day’s work! And at the end of the day what they get might not be enough!