Paseo del Arte

When it comes to art, Madrid has an embarrassment of riches. The city’s three major museums are sometimes referred to as the Golden Triangle of Art. If you’re planning on visiting all three, the Paseo del Arte - art walk - pass is a great investment. You can purchase the pass at any of the three museums for €29.60, a 20% discount off the price if you paid individually. It’s good for one visit to each museum and you can take up to a year to visit all three.

Just as a note – the art pass was worthwhile for the price, but didn’t help me skip any lines. I’d read that recently the Prado was accepting the pass straight out, but they made me go to another line to show my pass for a ticket. Luckily, both lines were short on the Sunday afternoon I visited.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza was the first of the three museums I visited and is one of the best museums I’ve been to that offers a general survey of art history, with pieces from all major Western art movements. It fills the gaps in the Prado's collection, with Italian works from the 14th and 15th centuries and early English, Dutch, and German art and the Reina Sofia’s with Impressionists, Expressionists, and 20th Century European and American art. (I wasn’t expecting to see paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe and Winslow Homer in Spain!) The 20th century collection is fabulous – well-chosen pieces by a great collection of artists – honestly, I felt it put the Reina Sofia to shame.

The holdings of the Thyssen used to be the second largest private collection in the world, with over 1,600 paintings. It was started in the 1920s by the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kaszon. The Baron bought paintings from American millionaires who needed to sell their own collections to cope with the financial effects of the Great Depression. Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza expanded the collection, along with his wife, Carmen Tita Cervera, a former Miss Spain. (Their fabulous portraits in full 1980s fashion are on view in the lobby.)

Cervera was instrumental in getting the younger Baron to bring the collection from Switzerland to Spain, where it was housed in an empty local government building near the Prado. It opened as a museum in 1992 and Spanish government bought the collection a year later. Cervera loaned her own collection of 429 works and renews the loan annually. She’s also responsible for the salmon pink walls in many rooms of the museum – you wouldn’t think it would work, but it kinda does.

The Thyssen has many minor works by big-name artists. I was impressed by some early paintings by Gauguin that were completely impressionist in style. Some of the collection's highlights include the Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni by Ghirlandaio, a self portrait by Rembrandt, and Woman in Bath by Roy Lichtenstein. Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking by Salvador Dali is also one of the most important paintings on view, but it was out of loan when I visited.

My next visit was to the Prado, Spain’s main national art museum and one of the best collections of European art in the world. Based on the Spanish Royal collection, its focus is Spanish art. (However, because Spain had control of the Netherlands for many years, there’s also a good amount of Dutch and Flemish work.) The building was designed in 1785 on the orders of Charles III. His grandson, Ferdinand VII, had its use set as a museum of painting and sculpture. The museum opened in 1819, and was named for the meadow that it was built on.

Today the Prado has almost 8,000 paintings (around 1,300 are on display) and attracts 2.8 million visitors each year. It holds several of the most famous paintings in the world, such as The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch, Las Meninas by Velázquez, and The Family of Charles IV by Goya. In fact, Goya is the single most represented artist – a new permanent exhibit on the top floor of the museum focuses on the paintings he created for tapestries early in his career.

Be sure to grab a map at the front desk - it comes with a handy list of some of the highlights and where you'll find them. In the two or three hours I spent at the Prado, I was able to visit every gallery. Generally, I'll look at everything, but chose one or two pictures per gallery to really examine. I probably spent the longest with Rogier can der Weyden's Descent from the Cross. It's a painting students study in art history for the composition, but in person, the colors are absolutely breathtaking.

Two other works that piqued my interest were Caravaggio's David and Gisbert's Execution of Trujillo and his Companions. Caravaggio's life and work is fascinating, and his David is a great example of the chiaroscuro that makes him one of the most influential artists ever. I wasn't familiar with this Gisbert work before, but the monumental size of his painting, the moody coolness of the landscape, and the individuality of expression on each soldier as he faces the certainty of death made it completely fascinating to examine in person. The subject matter owes much to Goya's Third of May, which hangs not too far away, but the execution is starkly different for something painted not 80 years later.

Overall, the Prado is an incredible museum and the best place in the world to see Spanish art. They do a great job of showcasing the work of Goya and Velasquez in particular. Goya's Black Paintings are tucked away in a small, dim room - perfect for the subject matter and the intimate way they were painted, on the walls of Goya's house. Meanwhile, his paintings of the royal family are shown in a grand octagonal room with a skylight. Velázquez's paintings of the royals are showcased in a similar room - however, it doesn't work quite as well as the Goya gallery because the darker colors and square-ish shape of Las Meninas end up with an awful glare from the skylight.

The last museum I visited with my art pass was the Reina Sofia, Spain’s national 20th century art museum. The building itself is an old hospital, built in 1805 and closed in 1969. (Some people say it’s haunted.) Three glass elevator towers were added to façade in the late 80s and a modern expansion was added in 2005. Largely focused on modern Spanish art, the paintings of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali are naturally the two highlights, with Picasso's Guernica as the masterpiece everyone comes to see.

I was not a fan of the Reina Sofia. I walked out thinking I don’t like modern art when that’s not true - I love the collection at the Thyssen and museums like MoMA. The problem is two-fold - both the building and the collection itself. The building was not designed to show art - there's no natural flow, the rooms seem large and cold, and the layout is confusing. The collection itself could be better curated and displayed. The gallery in which Guernica hangs is pretty well thought out - the painting is the only one in the room, the ceiling is lowered and vaulted, and sketches and documents pertaining to the work run along the back wall. The rest of the collection would benefit from this same care.

Afterwards, I realized I would love to see the Reina Sofia as a 20th century Spanish history museum. Because modern Spanish art is intrinsically tied with political events and movements, showing the art alone is telling half the story. (Pieces from countries other than Spain could still be used to support the Spanish work in an international context.) The museum contains work by Joan Miro, Juan Gris, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, Damien Hirst, Paul Klee, Rene Magritte, Mark Rothko, and Diego Rivera - it should be spectacular! But as it was, I was happy to have the Reina Sofia included in my art pass instead of paying for it separately.

Overall, if you love art and have the time to see all three museums while in Madrid, the Paseo del Arte is the best way to do so. If you have less time or less of an interest, I would recommend the Prado as an iconic cultural experience, the Thyssen-Bornemisza as a pleasant day out, and the Reina Sofia if you really want to see Guernica in person.