The art museum is my favorite place of all time. The feeling of being astonished when I first entered the museum and the thrill of seeing powerful and delicate works for the first time is inexplicable to those who have not seen them. I still can’t forget the thrill of seeing Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling for the first time in 2018 on a trip to the Vatican. I leaned my head back and looked at them forever. Later I went back to the hotel, and I spent the entire evening searching for commentary on the stories and works of Michelangelo’s paintings. A Vatican trip motivated me to take an interest in art history and visit art museums in cities around the world. Visiting art museums and appreciating good works there permeates our human lives and allows us to have a variety of experiences. In this feature, I would like to share with you the best art museums I’ve ever visited and some representative works there.

The Prado Museum, located in Madrid, Spain, is the first museum I would like to introduce. There are works of painters who were active in the golden age of Spanish painting in the 16th and 17th centuries, including El Greco and Goya, one of the two greats of Spanish painting. There are also many Flemish paintings from the Netherlands, which were closely related to the Spanish royal family, and Italian paintings such as Botticelli and Raphael. To be honest, I visited the Prado Museum just to see two artworks. Goya’s <The Clothed Maja> and <The Naked Maja>. As far as I remember, the movement of the museum was quite complicated, so it took a while to find the work. When I finally bumped into Maja, the two paintings were arranged side by side. the time Goya painted <The Naked Maja>, drawing nude women was taboo and Goya was criticized for this painting. I can give some tips to anyone who wants to visit the Prado Museum, the museum’s movement is very complicated and chaotic, so you need to set the movement line in advance, focusing on the works you want to see before you see them, to prevent wasting time and energy. In addition, photography in the museum is prohibited, so, regrettably, you have to see masterpieces only with your eyes.

When it comes to representative art museums in London, people think of the National Gallery or Tate Modern. However, I enjoy visiting Tate Britain. I love intensive works, so I don’t prefer contemporary art which is abstract and ideological. Whenever I visit Tate Britain, I don’t see the photography and installation art displayed on the ground floor. Then what leads me to Tate Britain? It’s <Ophelia>. <Ophelia>, by John Everett Millais is a scene from Hamlet, a Shakespeare play, where Ophelia ends her life by a river, giving up all hope for life. When you see this work, only Ophelia’s elaborate silver dress shines the most, and other objects around it give a dark and cold feeling, maximizing irony. The more I see this work, the more I feel like I’m going into the picture, and I don’t get tired of it even though I look at it several times. It took me about two hours to look around the whole building. They have many works by William Turner, a representative modern and contemporary artist in England. Even if you don’t have a museum map, it is not hard to look around because the year is written on the floor and wall of the museum, so you can look around the paintings in chronological order.

As I mentioned earlier, I would like to talk about the Vatican Museums that I love the most, inspired, and would like to visit again. The Vatican Museums are the best art museum ever boasted by Vatican City. When I visited in August 2018, the midsummer heat tired me from lining up for admission. I recommend buying a ticket online in advance. The Vatican Museums are composed of several buildings to form an art museum. Looking around the numerous works of masters such as Raffaello and Michelangelo and the elaborately and beautifully depicted sculptures, I cannot help but marvel at their grandeur. When you see Raffaello’s <The School of Athens>, because the painting is so huge I feel like I have become smaller. Then, as I enter the Sistine Chapel, part of the Vatican Museums, I see Michelangelo’s ceiling painting. The room is packed with people and I am pushed to walk by people. It was a little funny to see everyone in the room leaning their heads back and enjoying the ceiling painting. The figures in the ceiling are so vivid that if you keep looking at the ceiling, you will feel the illusion of approaching. Once you visit there, you will never forget the thrill. 

I went back to three of the best art museums I have ever visited. Sharing the likes and dislikes of a museum and ranking them may be ambiguous, but please understand that this is the subjective experience of a museum lover who loves visiting art museums. I hope this has helped you plan your trip.