MADR3021: Art at the Prado Museum

The aim of this course is to make students familiar with the most relevant and internationally outstanding Spanish and European artists within the Prado Museum Permanent Collections. The course will help students to fully understand and assimilate art history fundamental concepts and movements such as Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassicism, with a specific concentration on Spanish masters such as El Greco, Velázquez, and Goya. Simultaneously, it will help students confront Spain’s and Europe most controversial history: from the dark Medieval Ages to the beginning of the 19th Century. Two observations will be fundamental to our investigations. The first is that art history involves the study not simply of formal concepts. A work of art has a physical presence that is offered by the artist but his/her ideas, convictions, and claims are shaped in large measure by specific social circumstances. The relevance of the latter are those that turn an artwork into a masterpiece. Thus, techniques and styles of representation are just the beginning of art history research. The second observation has to do with the relationship between art and culture: Art does not simply (or passively) reflect a given culture, but rather actively participates in its formation and development. A work of art, then, is the deepest expression of a social, religious, political, as well as intellectual context. Thus, thorough the artworks’ analysis, students will develop critical and intellectual thinking by the means of observation, research, and interpretation.

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