Prado, Mariano Ignacio, 1826-1901, president of Peru (1865-67, 1878-79). He aided Ramón Castilla in the revolution of 1854. Indignant at the treaty that compensated Spain for losses during the revolution—a treaty he considered humiliating to Peru—Prado led a revolution. He became dictator and severed diplomatic relations with Spain. The war that followed was limited to small naval engagements, but before its conclusion Prado was deposed. He was forced to leave the country, but he later returned and was reelected. The war with Chile (see Pacific, War of the) broke out in 1879. After some months of dismal failure and defeat, Prado left for Europe and did not return for many years.

Prado, national Spanish museum of painting and sculpture, Madrid, one of the finest in Europe. Situated on the Paseo del Prado, it was begun by Juan de Villanueva in 1785 for Charles III, as a museum of natural history, and finished under Ferdinand VII; the inaugural ceremony took place in 1819, when the collection consisted entirely of Spanish paintings. It was maintained by the royal family and called the Royal Museum until 1868, when it became national property. The Spanish, Flemish, and Venetian schools are particularly well represented. There are outstanding masterpieces of Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rubens, Van Dyck, Dürer, Brueghel, and Hieronymus Bosch, and Velázquez, El Greco, Ribera, and Goya, nowhere else to be seen to such advantage. In 1894 contemporary paintings in the museum were transferred to the Patrimonio Nacional.