Juan Manuel Blanes Municipal Museum of the Arts ( es, Museo de Bellas Artes Juan Manuel Blanes) is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

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 ...

, Montevideo,

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Location and history

The Juan Manuel Blanes Municipal Museum of the Arts is located at Avenida Millan 4015, in the

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...

of Prado, Montevideo, in a

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

villa designated a National Heritage Site in 1975. The villa was originally designed in 1870 by Juan Alberto Capurro, an engineer trained at the

Turin Polytechnic The Polytechnic University of Turin ( it, Politecnico di Torino) is the oldest Italian Public university, public Institute of technology, technical university. The university offers several courses in the fields of Engineering, Architecture, Urba ...

, for the then-owner Dr. Juan Battista Raffo. The surrounding garden reveals elements of French landscape design. The municipality acquired the villa in 1929, when it commissioned the architect Eugenio Baroffio to renovate and expand the building. Baroffio maintained the eclecticism of the original design, leaving the facade intact. The museum was founded in 1930, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the first

Constitution of Uruguay The Constitution of Uruguay () is the supreme law of Uruguay. Its first version was written in 1830 and its last amendment was made in 2004. Uruguay's first constitution was adopted in 1830, following the conclusion of the three-year-long Cispla ...

, and named after the patriotic Uruguayan artist,

Juan Manuel Blanes Juan Manuel Blanes (June 8, 1830 – April 15, 1901) was a noted Uruguayan painter of the Realism (art), Realist school. Life and work Blanes was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1830. He was raised by his mother, with whom he relocated to the cou ...

.Juan Manuel Blanes Municipal Museum of Arts

Park and gardens

This property has a big park full of ancient trees, on the shore of the Miguelete Creek. Behind the museum can be found the

Japanese Garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...

Collections

The museum displays Uruguayan art ranging from the nation's founding to the present day, including the works of

, Pedro Figari,

Rafael Barradas Rafael Pérez Giménez Barradas (4 January 1890 in Montevideo – 12 February 1929 in Montevideo), was an Uruguayan modernist painter and graphic artist who worked in Spain. Biography His parents were immigrants from Spain. His older sister, Ca ...

, José Cúneo, and Carlos González.

Hours and operation

The museum is open from noon to 5:45 p.m. every day from Tuesday through Sunday. It does not charge admission.

References

External links