Looking at the Prado

The galleries of the Prado Museum are home to some of the most admired works in the history of art. Millions of people walk past them every year, but understanding a painting goes far beyond knowing who painted it, when it was created or the story it depicts.
Alejandro Vergara, a curator at the Prado and one of the museum's most respected voices, invites us to pause. To take our time observing. To discover that painting is not merely a story told through images, but a language made up of shapes, colours, tensions and emotions.
Through a masterful selection of works — from Van der Weyden to Goya, from Ribera to Rubens — the author guides us with expertise and an accessible approach through what makes painting truly great: its ability to move us, make us think and teach us to see the world differently.
This is not a book for specialists. It is a book for anyone who has ever felt that a painting was speaking to them without quite knowing why.
A tribute to the Prado Museum and, above all, an invitation to look.