Stand before Las Meninas at the Prado
Velázquez painted it in 1656 and nobody has entirely settled what is happening in it. It hangs in its own room at the Prado, and the longer you look the less certain it becomes.
The Infanta Margarita stands at the centre with her attendants. Velázquez himself is at the left, at a canvas whose face we cannot see. In the mirror at the back are the King and Queen — but whether they are the subject of the painting within the painting, or standing where we are standing, has been argued for three hundred and fifty years.
The Prado is a painters’ museum rather than an encyclopaedic one. It holds the deepest Velázquez, Goya and El Greco collections anywhere, and Goya is the shock: the bright cartoons for royal tapestries in one wing and the Black Paintings — done on the walls of his own house, late, deaf and bitter — in another.
Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights is here too, brought to Spain by Philip II, and rewards far more time than most people give it.
Good to Know
Availability, exact timings and pricing depend on your itinerary, hotel and season — your Finders & Keepers Safaris specialist will confirm details and slot this experience into your existing day-by-day plan.
A guide, or three hours of walking past things
The Prado hangs well over a thousand works and there is no route through it that makes sense unaided. A guide picks perhaps twenty and gives you the argument for each. Free entry in the last two hours draws a substantial queue — worth knowing whichever way you decide. No photography anywhere in the building, and large bags go to the cloakroom.