The Casón del Buen Retiro is an annex of the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

complex in Madrid. Following major restoration work, which was completed in October 2007,Library and study centre

. Retrieved 25 May 2013. it now houses the Museum's study centre (the Escuela del Prado) and library.

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

's 1937 ''

Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...

'' canvas, and the sketches associated with its creation, were displayed at the Casón from 1981, when it was delivered to Spain from New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), to 1992, when it was moved to its current permanent location in a purpose-built gallery at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía."Un millón de personas ha visto el 'Guernica' en el Casón del Buen Retiro"
''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

''. Retrieved 25 May 2013.

History

The Casón del Buen Retiro was originally built as the ballroom in the 17th century, the ''Salón de Baile'', of the Buen Retiro Palace, of which now only two buildings, the Casón and the

Salón de Reinos The ''Salón de Reinos'' (translated as "Hall of the Kingdoms" or "Hall of Realms") or ''salón grande'' ("great hall") is a 17th-century building in Madrid, originally a wing of the Buen Retiro Palace. The Salón de Reinos and the Casón del Bu ...

still remain. The Casón is located in front of the Puerta de Felipe IV entrance on the west side of

Retiro Park The Buen Retiro Park (Spanish: ''Parque del Buen Retiro'', literally "Good retirement park"), Retiro Park or simply El Retiro is one of the largest parks of the city of Madrid, Spain. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th ...

. The artistic importance of Luca Giordano's ''The Allegory of the Golden Fleece'', a c. 1694

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

on the ceiling of the Casón commissioned by King Charles II of Spain, is one of the possible reasons given for the building having survived when most of the other Bueno Retiro palace complex buildings were demolished in the 19th century. The fresco is considered one of the masterpieces of the Prado's collection.

Museums

From 1877 to 1960 the Casón was used as the ''Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas'', set up by the then President of the Government,

Antonio Canovas del Castillo Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 40 ...

, until it was moved to the '' Museo de América''. The building was then used as a temporary exhibition space until 1971. From 1971 to 1981 it was used by the Museo del Prado for the 19th-century collections paintings and sculptures which had formerly been in the ''

Museo de Arte Moderno The Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) is located in Chapultepec park, Mexico City, Mexico. The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura and provides exhibitions of national and international contemporary a ...

''. From 1981 to 1992 the Casón housed Picasso’s ''Guernica'' painting, now in the '' Museo Reina Sofía''.

Library

The library of the Museo del Prado, on the ground floor of the Casón building, consists of the Reading Room for the use of researchers, the museum's technical staff and students of the Escuela del Prado, and the book stores located in the basements. It comprises some 70,000 books, including those acquired from two private collections, those of José María Cervelló and of the Daza-Madrazo family, the latter mostly books belonging to the painter José de Madrazo, director of the Museo del Prado from 1838 to 1851.

Escuela del Prado

The Escuela del Prado is a school of the Museo del Prado housed in the Casón building.

Restoration work

From 1997 to 2007, the Casón building was closed for remodelling and enlargement.The Casón del Buen Retiro: History

. Retrieved 25 May 2013. Projects included the excavation of two new floors, resulting in almost double the preexisting space.The re-modelling and enlargement

. Retrieved 25 May 2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cason del Buen Retiro Buildings and structures in Jerónimos neighborhood, Madrid Art museums and galleries in Madrid Museo del Prado Museums in Madrid Palaces in Madrid Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in Madrid Buildings and structures completed in the 1630s Neoclassical architecture in Madrid