Well here's to another update on life in Spain.
This Friday brought a trip to the Museo del Prado with my art history class - Grand Master Painters of Spain. In general our program doesn't have classes on Friday but this class has three trips to museums in Madrid throughout the term. This visit we focused on El Greco and Velazquez. During our first spin through the galleries we moved at a pretty quick clip. The pace combined with clutching the listening device between shoulder and ear while simultaneously scribbling down some notes on the works left little time to process the masterpieces. After our lesson we were given additional time to explore the museum. I knew that if I ventured into any more galleries my head might explode so I decided to wander back to the first painting of Greco and re-trace my steps.
I took out my notebook and began to skim back over my chicken scratch notes as I started from square one again. Although the size of El Greco's first works in Italy (about the size of an iPad) and his larger masterpieces vary greatly, his careful calculation of brushstrokes and color are constant throughout. The mixture of colors he uses to convey depth and texture is impressive and makes his works truly come to life. Along with his knack for utilizing color, I am also drawn to his connection with Toledo - the city that I am living in. As he lived much of his life in Toledo, the outline of the ancient city is present in many of his works. Although he took some liberty with the exact location of La Catedral in some cityscapes - one can always discern Toledo's charming outline. Since the museum serves as the home for many works by the master painter, or professor couldn't comment on each work. When I was retracing my steps I took a moment to pause at a work that we had mentioned in class but didn't stop to discuss in the museum - "Cristo Abrazado a la Cruz." This painting really struck me. The incredible amount of emotion in Christ's gaze towards the heavens creating a simple yet incredible powerful scene. Another one of my favorites is "La Adoración de los Pastores" which El Greco had intended to mark his place of burial. This game plan didn't work out - read more about it, it's an interesting story.
la adoración de los pastores cristo abrazado a la cruz
After feeling satisfied with my second pass through El Greco's work I moved onto Velazquez. A man who spent almost all of his years working for the royal family, his subjects are markedly different than those of El Greco. A perfectionist to a T, he was never satisfied with his one works. Looking carefully at his pieces one can often see his paths towards perfection. In the case of one particular case, the horse appears to have a ghost leg. Although I could spend an hour talking about the works I narrowed it down to two of my favorites in the collection. I spent quite some time staring at "Cristo crucificado." My professor talked at length about the way that Velazquez portrayed this moment. Throughout history, artists have spent a great amount of time re-creating the time that Jesus spent on the cross but this work is unique. The black background - giving the viewer no chance to get distracted. His portrayal of Jesus's body as relatively pristine. And the list goes on. The second painting, "Las Meninas" is part of an interesting debate. One that I will not go into here but I highly recommend reading up a little about the work.
cristo crucificado las meninas
I hope this post serves as a short (and hopefully interesting) look into just a few rooms of the Museo del Prado. I will be back again to study more and am looking forward to it. Well since this post was dedicated just to a few hours on Friday, I'll have to get to a more light-hearted post about adventures in Toledo this weekend.
Adíos.
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