Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Museo de Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado 8
Madrid
Communidad de Madrid
91 369 01 51

Type: Museum
Addmission Fee: General entry 4.20 Euro, students and seniors 2.40 Euro. Under 12 free.
Hours: Open Tues.-Sun. 10 am-7pm

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Where the Prado’s collection is classical and the Reina Sofia’s contemporary, the Thyssen-Bornemisza is a varied and largely indefinable assemblage of Western art in paintings, sculptures, tapestries and engravings. In the 1920s, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza began acquiring his first medieval pieces and later his son added a number of modern works. The collection was ‘donated’ (actually sold to Spain for a princely sum) in 1993 and put on display in the 18th-century palace formerly occupied by the Duke of Villahermosa. For visitors with little or no knowledge of art history, the Thyssen Bornemisza allows unique insights into the changing perspectives of art, beginning with such early works as Madonna and Child by the Master of the Magdalen, then the Baroque of Caravaggio, through to the avant-garde, pop-art and surrealism of the 20th century – namely Picasso, Miró, Kandinsky, Pollack, Rothko and more Dalí. The strength of the Thyssen Museum lies in its ability to fill the gaps of the collections in its neighboring museums. Paramount is the museum’s collection of Impressionistic works (Monet, Renoir and Manet) and the movement’s post-Impressionist manifestations at the hands of Gauguin, Van Gogh, Degas and Cézanne. To start with the earliest works, begin on the second floor (its works span the 13th-18th centuries), drop down to the first floor, which is largely comprised of 19th-century American art as well as that of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods, and finally to the ground floor for a look at the various 20th-century art movements.