Museo Del Prado - Sculpture

Sculpture

The Prado's sculpture collection numbers more than 900 works, in addition to around 200 fragments. Most are classical, Renaissance and Baroque sculptures and works from the 18th and 19th centuries, but the Museum also possesses some Oriental and Medieval pieces.

The first group derives from the royal collection and principally comprises Greco-Roman sculptures in addition to Renaissance bronzes by artists such as the Leoni, who executed sculpted portraits of the Spanish monarchs in the 16th century. With the importation of sculptures from Italy, the taste for the classical revived in 17th-century Spain. This was in fact one of the main reasons for Velázquez's second trip to Italy, and during his stay in Rome he was involved in the selection of works on behalf of Philip IV. Particularly important were the acquisitions made in the 18th century by Philip V and his queen, Isabella Farnese, who purchased the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden, to which that of José Nicolás de Azara was later added.

With regard to more recent acquisitions, an important addition was the small but significant group of archaic Greek sculpture donated by Mario Zayas in 1944, an area not represented by a single work in the Spanish royal collection. Two sculptures of Epimetheus and Pandora by El Greco are also recent acquisitions for the collection.