Along this tour we will visit the largest and most important painting gallery around the world, El Prado Museum, approaching the most outstanding artists and masterpieces in it. First of all, we will get to know a little bit about both the origin of the building and the origin of the collections. Then, following a chronological order, we will go through the centuries between XV and XIX, placing special emphasis on those artists who worked in Spain or worked for the Spanish Monarchy; from Tiziano, passing through El Greco, Rubens or Velázquez (between others), upto Goya. As plastic artist and art restorer that I am, I've prepared this tour in order for the visitor to dive into the great treasure that El Prado museum houses, understanding the different historic contexts and the relation between one artwork and the other, learning a lot and having fun at the same time.
Delfi is an amazing tour guide for this tour. She went over the various master pieces to share their historical significance as well as artistic details. The group was small so we really enjoyed the intimate tour.
Delfi, our very knowledgeable guide, introduced us to the most important paintings in the museum and indicated a few more that we should view after the end of our 3 hour plus tour. Highly recommend the tour.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Prado with our knowledgeable guide, Delfi. The small group setting made the experience feel personal and engaging. The museum is vast, but Delfi made excellent use of our time, guiding us through its most famous masterpieces at a comfortable pace. Her impressive knowledge of art history and lively explanations brought the paintings and their stories to life. She was also very kind and attentive to our group’s interests, making the visit enjoyable for everyone.
Delfi was so knowledgeable and showed us some truly amazing pieces. Totally worth the money to get a guide!
There were a total of 7 people in our group and we each had a device to clearly hear every word of our expert guide. PRADO is huge and I could not have enjoyed it without this tour. Each one in our party of 4 thought our guide was excellent.
Delfi was fabulous! She is so knowledgeable with a great delivery. I totally recommend her tour. All the highlights were included.
Delfi knows her art and presented it in a very cohesive and interesting manner. She was engaging and very professional.
Delfi was a very knowledgeable guide but also made our visit fun! It was great to have such a small group - just 3 of us. Would highly recommend this tour for any art lover of those just wanting an introduction to these fabulous paintings.
This was a great experience. Very different than just walking around and looking at the paintings We were given a very detailed education about the artists lives and details on most of the paintings. A lot of information not always accessible to all. Delfi our guide was awesome
This was one of the best tour we took in Madrid. Delphi was very knowledgeable on the museum and guided us through the important pieces with pertinent facts in a delightful way. Highly recommend this 3 hour tour.
Delfi’s tour was outstanding! We loved every minute. Her knowledge of the Masterpieces of the Prado is very extensive, and her communication skills were great. (We took the tour in English ). Her audio technology was first-class—we had no problems at all. We learned so much more than we would have on our own. We could not have had a better guide. Highly recommend!
The best. Knowledgeable, fluent, organized, accurate. Don’t hesitate, Hard to imagine a better tour.
Delfi was an outstanding tour guide. We did a 3-hour tour of El Prado. Delfi provided valuable insight into the artworks we were seeing and provided historical context for the whole museum as well as for individual artworks. She was friendly, had excellent English and our whole experience was thoroughly enjoyable. The earpiece in the ear made it easy to hear her even when there were many people viewing. I highly recommended Delfi's tour. I have greater appreciation for art after hearing her explanations. After doing the morning tour we stayed on for the rest of the day, revisiting a few pieces she had shown us as well as seeing some she recommended we do on our own.
Our visit to the Prado museum went extraordinarily well. This was in large measure due to the wonderful experience of our tour guide, Delfina Menendez. She was outstanding. Not only was she exceptionally well informed about the contents of the Prado, but she was most helpful to us as older members of the tour group.. her personality and knowledge when put together made this one of our most exceptionally positive experiences of our visit to Spain.
The Prado is an enormous museum and would have been intimidating if we did not have Delfi guiding us. She is very knowledgeable, gave incredible insights into the artwork and answered all our questions beautifully. Everyone needs a Delfi to make the most of their Prado experience!
The delights of Madrid are to be found behind the walls of its palatial mansions, and especially behind those of the Prado of course, at least for this constantly bedazzlement-seeking visitor. And it seems fair that, if all the centuries-long wealth extraction from that formerly globe-spanning Spanish empire was good for nothing else, at least it was for this: One of the most lavish forms of escapism to transport you from the rugged Meseta Central to some of the most picturesque domains in the world or anyone’s imagination. And so Veronese’s Christ Among the Doctors showcases architecture of an antiquity and delicateness that the Madrid Tourism Board would kill for, Joachim Patinir’s Charon Crossing the Styx, unlike the Spanish capital, features a body of water of at least some heft, and Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, with its bulbous biblical-futurist gravity-and-analysis-defying space age bubblegum follies, is the kind of horticultural showstopper that the Buen Retiro is in its wildest dreams. And here’s Charles V in all his glory, dramatically (if ahistorically) riding into the battle of Mühlberg, instead of being disappointingly scrunched up and stashed away into the dynastic funerary filing cabinet of El Escorial. All of which is to say that, in my opinion, in Madrid the Prado (along with the Reina Sofia) is the place to be. So if you wanna make the most of your time there, don’t just go on a mass-market tour that will lump it in with other sundry tourist sites, and don’t let yourself get shortchanged with just a whistlestop visit. Anything less than a couple of hours is patently too short, if not downright negligent. The most personable, personalized and characterful guided visitor experience that I’ve been able to find, which you wanna go for and which I can wholeheartedly recommend, is the one offered by Sra. Mendoza. For the day I booked I ended up by happenstance being the sole participant in her tour (in the week between Christmas and New Year’s), and so I had the privilege of being given a one-on-one literal art history masterclass. She trained my eye on the revolution in projection for example in Tintoretto’s Christ’s Washing of the Feet, gave me the full, frothy backstory behind the twinkle in one of Rubens’s Three Graces’ eyes, and went into profound, fascinating detail about the unique perspectival convergence of painter and audience in Las Meninas, as well as vividly evoking Goya’s final years of desolation, the thriller behind unearthing Caravaggio’s “lost” (and seemingly only on finite display) Ecce Homo, and the life and times of a personal favourite of mine, Maíno. All of which was trumped on this particular visit, however, by Fra Angelico’s Annunciation. Oh, the Annunciation. With colours so rich and brilliant as if it had been created not 600 years ago, but ripped from someone’s easel yesterday, and with a spatial arrangement so harmonious I could not help but feel elevated. Fortified by this encounter and thoroughly wowed by this tour-de-force-plus-overtime I felt prepared to turn my back on the riches of the painted past for the day and face the bustling but austere monumental imperial boulevards of the city again.
Our guide Delfi was very knowledgeable of the Spanish history which made the explanation of each of the featured art work even more meaningful. The Museum was beautiful on its own, but the experience was truly enhanced by Delfi’s commentary on the works of art, and she takes you into a journey of how each artist’s style has evolved over time and how they compare to other artists who came before them and those they influenced. The 3 hour long tour is longer than most of the museums tours offered but definitely worth the investment in time and price for the tour.
Terrific - Delphi was a confident knowledgable guide. The 3 hours passed very quickly. She edited the enormous collection so that it was WOW WOW WOW - didn’t know anything about Bosch WOW never appreciated El Greco WOW was looking forward to Goya but learnt so much WOW
Incredible tour that gives you context and insights into everything you see. There’s so many paintings to see and on this tour it is curated to see exactly what you need. Insight into layout of museum and how certain paintings are similar in inspiration is provided. Totally worth it and made our experience so much better
This tour was excellent, great value for all it included. Our tour guide, Delfi, was very informative, made sure she covered everything and happily answered all our questions so we really had a good understanding of the artists and their artworks. The tour lasted the full 3 hours.
Excellent way to explore the Prado for the first time. Delfi presents a carefully curated journey through the evolution of Spain’s artistic heritage. Through her obvious expertise, passion for her topic, and excellent descriptions, we were able to enjoy and appreciate the genius of the masters while understanding how they influenced each other as well as each of their unique place in Spanish history. Highly recommend!
We were expertly guided through the Prado maximizing both our experience and enjoyment. We were enlightened with both a historical and artistic perspective. Our time in Madrid was limited so having someone so knowledgeable and enthusiastic take us through such a large collection was an absolute joy and highly recomened.
Delfi was a great tour guide. Amazing she could talk for the whole tour extremely knowledgeably without looking at notes.
The Prado is not the largest museum in the world but under one roof it has more masterpieces for its size than any other museum. It is too big to encompass in even a few trips. Our best decision in visiting this treasure house of the Hapsburg and Biurbons was to have a strategy given our brief time there—to have a curated experience. Delfi selected some of the ‘best in show’ examples of Spanish baroque and Hispano-Flemish art. She was able to explain clearly the history, and significance of key examples. I thought 3 hours would be too long but it clearly was not enough! When dealing with Velasquez, Goya, Titian, El Greco, among others Delfi somehow made it work, made it so that you got a flavor of their contributions, their life and times. We even got to see a surprising if not shocking work from the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci. She took her time and was considerate of the need for biological breaks! We even had time for a brief refreshing coffee break at the cafe Prado. The audio devices worked perfectly. They were essential given the number of other groups in the museum. Photography is not permitted at the Prado; that actually was a relief because everyone could enjoy the art directly, eye-to-art rather than the annoying and distracting feye-to-iPhone. Don’t feel bad because after the tour Delfi sent everyone links to beautiful images of all the works she covered, better than anyone could get on their iPhone. A nice digital souvenir. Many of us have spent a lot of time and money to get to the Prado. If you only have time to scratch the surface of its vast collection, scratch it with Delfi. You won’t regret it.
Our tour guide Delfi was incredible! She was so informative and really knew about Spanish history, and art history in general, and connected all the dots between the two. Her English is suburb, which was appreciated. She worked really hard for 3 hours teaching us about Spanish art. She also emailed us links to the works we discussed, which is above and beyond. All in all the best tour on our trip to Spain! I highly recommend!
Delphi gave a very structured and informative tours . Their clear explanations helped me connect the painters’ influences and see the Prado’s collection as part of a larger story.
The tour was simply excellent. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, and clearly passionate about the art. We learned an incredible amount, and developed a much greater understanding of these classic masterpieces. I would recommend this tour to absolutely anyone!
Excellent synopsis of famous masterpieces in the Prado. Delfina was very knowledgeable re the painters and the history and background of the individual works. The 3 hours flew by very quickly. The sequence of our viewings allowed our group of 7 to avoid large crowds and the provided headphone was loud and had good fidelity not requiring the use of a cell phone.
All the other reviews say it all. Delfi is an outstanding tour guide who will make the overwhelming Prado very accessible to you! We were a group of 6 and there were some crowds around very famous works, but Delfi provides a headset so you have an expert whispering in your ear to help you appreciate the details as well as the larger context of the paintings. There are many tours available, but I can't imagine a better one than Delfi's! Don't miss out.
Delfi was so friendly, personable, and knowledgeable. She did an exceptional job navigating us through the Prado. Her knowledge of the artists, coupled with historical, religious, and cultural context, helped us have a strong appreciation for the works of art we viewed. I highly recommend this tour and, when we come back, we would definitely hire Delfi again!
Excellent tour of the Prado with our guide, Delfina. She skillfully navigated our small group through the museum to major works of art while sharing interesting information about the pieces, the artists, and the times. Highly recommend a tour with Delfina.
Truly excellent tour by an exceptionally knowledgeable guide. A great and memorable experience! Highly recommended.
Delfi gave us an excellent tour of the Prado! Being an art historian and restorer herself, she’s able to present a unique angle to what you’re seeing. She’s not just taking you from one popular piece of art to another, following the crowds; she’s taking you to lesser known pieces as well and telling you the history of both Spain and the art, as well as how the collection progressed. We got a lesson in history, art, and art history – all while seeing an amazing collection in about half a day. This was a great way - and about the right amount of time – to enjoy the Prado. We both knew a little bit of art history from friends, other tours, and our own interest, but Delfi was able to teach us so much more about the history and what shaped the paintings that we were seeing. We can’t recommend Delfi’s tour enough for art and history lovers. !Muchas gracias, Delfi!
Very nice experience! Really thorough and well educated guide! We would definitely recommend her for the prado museum guided tour.
The guide Delfi was terrific. Extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic, she provided detailed information on select artists and works from the Prada’s awesome collection.
Delfi is the best. She answered all questions, very patient and smart. She 's an artist herself. Flawless English w. good audio. Could not have been better. Well worth the cost!
The delightful-Delphi is a wonderful guide. I would have been overwhelmed by the volume of artworks at the Museo del Prado. Initially we met on the steps of the gallery, and received an explanation of the history of the building and of the acquisition of the paintings. This set the stage for a clear and interesting explanation of the major works inside. The transition of artists and their influences, over the centuries made for a fascinating tour. It was marvellous to see these masterpieces up close. We highly recommend this tour. Julia and Dave Wareham (New Zealand)
Out guide was amazing. We wouldn’t have wanted to tackle this monster without her. She gave us a great historical perspective on the masterpieces.
Delfi is incredibly knowledge and I highly recommend using her to guide you through the Prado. She has both an art history and art restoration background, and this knowledge made the experience the highlight of our trip to Madrid. She meets you outside the museum and once inside she brings you on a tour of some of the most important paintings. She gives each person a small headphone/amplifier which makes it easy to hear her narration. At the end of the tour she gives you a map of the museum in case you want to explore on your own, as well as recommendations for places to go off the beaten path.
We had been told that the Prado Museum was not to be missed when visiting Madrid and being aware of the huge number of fabulous artworks on display here decided that we would benefit most by having a guide. We chose Delfi and were delighted with our choice! The cost was very reasonable for the time she spent with us and another couple in a small group tour. Her planned progression of selected works was well thought out and we learnt a lot about Spanish art, artists and history. While her knowledge was outstanding, she didn’t overwhelm us with too much and her manner was just lovely. Everything we saw was wonderful. When the tour concluded she gave us a personalised floor plan and suggested we visit other ‘salas’ that contained works that she thought we would enjoy and we managed to see nearly all and they too were amazing. In conclusion we highly recommend you don’t miss visiting the Prado Museum and to select the lovely Delfi as your guide, you won’t be disappointed.
Delfi was great! All the Spanish masters were covered in depth as well as Titian, Reubens, Rafael Carragio, durer & Bosch. But I think Rogier van der Weyden might steal the show with his The Descent from the Cross. One of the best 5 paintings in the world? Absolutely.
Delfi was my guide & she was awesome! Incredibly knowledgeable & was very patient. I didn’t feel rushed in the slightest.
I visited the Prado Museum guided by Delfi, and it was truly an enriching experience! Delfi answered all of our questions, demonstrating their interest and passion for art. I was truly delighted! I highly recommend taking this tour with her.
i had a great time exploring the Prado museum with Delfina. you could tell she knew the museum well and has been there often. she's just starting this new venture and i was her first client so she's still building the experience, but she had a lot of material with her and your can tell she's put the research work in to make sure it's an informative tour. would highly recommend and wish you the best of luck on this new venture Delfina!
Delphi es una guía maravillosa. Hizo que fuera muy fácil encontrarla al comienzo del recorrido. Su conocimiento del arte y de los artistas es asombroso y hace que el recorrido sea muy divertido! Creo que pasamos 20 minutos hablando sobre “El Jardín de las Delicias” y todavía quería escuchar más. Si se planea visitar el Museo del Prado, se necesita a Delphi como su guía.
Very nice. His explanations were most entertaining and interesting. The visit would not have been the same without your input.
I want to thank delfi who made me see the meadow with other eyes, time flies by from the entertaining and interesting that makes it. I highly recommend it. Until the next visit to the meadow
Excellent tour of the meadow. Very didactic and entertaining. I feel like I learn a lot that otherwise I would have lost myself and not perceived half of things
It was an AMAZING visit Delfi explained everything with a passion and knowledge rarely seen. It was very dynamic, very interesting and the best way to tour such a large museum. It has beautiful color data and is very warm and friendly!! Super recommended
The tour with Delfina was incredible. She is a true professional, she is an art restorer and visual artist, so she has the necessary knowledge to provide a very interesting 3-hour tour (and more importantly, she has the ability to convey it in a close and enjoyable way) I think it is a true treasure to find people who are truly passionate about what they do, studious, and eager to transmit their passion. That's what Delfi does, she makes it so that even if art history is not your passion, during those three hours it is, and makes you want to learn more. Not to mention their kind, close and HUMAN treatment (which today is also a luxury) Many times I have gone on tours where I see a guide who only learned one script, but you can ask Delfina questions that she is happy to answer (she definitely oozes art and love for Madrid from every pore). Anyway, I do it! I highly recommend!
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