# The must-see masterpieces of the Prado Museum

The paintings you should not miss at the Prado, according to the museum's own masterpieces itinerary and the most-read visitor guides.

- 93 votes · 20 items
- Feb 14, 2025 · Milagros Rodríguez Torres
- https://even.best/en/l/2182/the-must-see-masterpieces-of-the-prado-museum

## Top 20

1. **Las Meninas** (10 · ▲11 ▼1) — Velázquez, 1656. The most studied game of glances in painting.
2. **The Garden of Earthly Delights** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1500. A triptych full of impossible creatures.
3. **Saturn Devouring His Son** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Goya, 1819-1823. One of the Black Paintings from his country house.
4. **The Family of Charles IV** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Goya, 1800. A royal portrait with the painter peeking from the back.
5. **The Third of May 1808 (The Executions)** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Goya, 1814. The cry against war that inspired half the 20th century.
6. **The Descent from the Cross** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435. Flemish grief and precision at almost life size.
7. **The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — El Greco, c. 1580. The Cretan painter's best-known portrait.
8. **The Nude Maja** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Goya, before 1800. One of the most famous nudes in Spanish art.
9. **The Three Graces** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Rubens, c. 1630-1635. The curves that gave us the word "Rubenesque".
10. **The Annunciation** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Fra Angelico, c. 1425-1426. Gold, blue and the expulsion from Eden at one side.
11. **The Clothed Maja** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — Goya, c. 1800-1807. The companion piece; they hang side by side.
12. **The Surrender of Breda** (1 · ▲3 ▼2) — Velázquez, 1634-1635. A victory painted with courtesy towards the defeated.
13. **The Holy Trinity** (1 · ▲3 ▼2) — El Greco, 1577-1579. One of his first commissions in Toledo.
14. **The Triumph of Death** (1 · ▲3 ▼2) — Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1562. An army of skeletons sweeps everything away.
15. **Emperor Charles V at Mühlberg** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Titian, 1548. The equestrian portrait that fixed the emperor's image.
16. **Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Rembrandt, 1634. The museum's only large Rembrandt.
17. **Adam and Eve** (0 · ▲2 ▼2) — Dürer, 1507. Two panels with the first life-size nudes of northern art.
18. **Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Tintoretto, c. 1548-1549. Theatrical perspective admired by Velázquez.
19. **The Dog** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Goya, 1819-1823. Another Black Painting, almost abstract.
20. **Jacob's Dream** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Jusepe de Ribera, 1639. A dream told with hardly an angel in sight.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.