Del Prado trip report

[JaBlue]

In Spain I visited Museo Del Prado. I don't know anything about art but I have also seen SFMOMA, the san francisco museum of modern art, which was cool excepting the black canvasses.

Del Prado was kind of boring because it was mostly renaisancy-stuff and spanish painters. Almost all efforts to be completely realistic and for me, it got really boring seeing a bunch of portraits and Jesuses after a while. My favorite painter was El Greco (and saw The Burial of Count Orgaz in Toledo on the trip too, that was breathtaking) and one painting by El Bosco [Bosch] called The Garden of Delicacies which was really cool too. I didn't really like Velasquez or De Goya and was disappointed because I had heard their names before. There were 2-3 Rafaels and they ruled.

There was also a big Picasso exhibit and that was way, way better than the Del Prado permanent collection. I didn't "get" or "see" the totally cubist paintings with a bunch of lines and stuff, but I really liked his other works. Also, I didn't know that he repainted works of other masters that he admired, and seeing his renditions was very interesting and mostly awesome.

Here are some of the paintings I saw in person:

El Greco - Burial of Count Orgaz (Toledo, not Del Prado)

by far the coolest, and most amazing painting I have ever seen. Supposedly, one of the "best 5 quality paintings in the world" according to the guide. The faces are noblemen, the kid is his son, he is third dignitary from the left of the black hooded guy on the bottom, and his wife is Mary. This painting is like 20 feet high (I think). How the [censored] did he do the transparency effect - note: noone knows whether the white or the black came first [guide].





Picasso - The Three Musicians

I bought a poster of this for my dorm. Its sweet.



Picasso - Self Portrait

Bought this as a poster for my brother since he's an aspiring artist. Not nearly as impressive or interesting as other stuff, but the only other poster I could get from the picasso exhibit. Pretty lame selection by Del Prado for the ONLY other one. Oh well.



Picasso - The Life

"This is the most representative painting of his "blue period", which presents ordinary poverty-stricken people: skeletal forms, alcoholics, beggars, prostitutes. All of them in this style - which remind us of the compositions of that other genius, El Greco - are pictured with blue shades as the basis of the composition, which highlights the desolated atmosphere of the message.

It was painted in Barcelona and we can see the road of life represented by a nude couple, which watch a mother with her baby, both dressed. In the background there are nude persons too, which depict the course of life towards loneliness in old age. Everything is surrounded by an atmosphere of melancholy, which was characteristic of this period."
-http://www.spanisharts.com/reinasofia/picasso.htm





My favorite Picasso was this really sad green painting but I can't find it online. Sorry.

El Bosco [Bosch] - Garden of the Delights

Not really sure whats going on here, but a very, very cool painting. Its 3 paintings side by side and was the only piece in the permanent collection that drew a crowd of 10+ on a mildly crowded Saturday. Also got this poster for my dorm.




As a side note, the Reina Sofia museum in spain has a bunch of picassos and dalis and I think I will definitely check it out next time I have the chance. I think it's permanent colelction will be much more interesting than Del Prado's.

[fslexcduck]

ack!

you went to the prado but didn't make it to the reina sofia? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

the prado, while i suppose it is more famous, is really really boring IMO. i guess you figured that out.

the reina sofia was awesome, i went there probably 4-5 times while i was there for the year. they had this one room, i can't remember if it was temporary or permanent, devoted entirely to don quijote... it's amazing how much really great art exists just about that one literary figure.

the thyssen was great as well, a good mix of all the different eras (so sort of a compromise between the other two museums) and the two times i went there they had this really cool temporary exhibit on russian avant-garde art.
you DEFINITELY have to check out those two if you're ever around again.

[JaBlue]

yea, duck, I [censored] up! I only had one day left in madrid when I came back around so I spent 12-6 at Del Prado, which was WAY too much time except for the picasso exhibit, and 9-2 at La Plaza Mayor and surrounding areas in Salamanca with my friend who's now an Au Paire which was super cool.

[Anacardo]

Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.

Et cetera ad infinitum,

T. d A. y C.

[JaredL]

No mention of Las Meninas?

To me it's the most impressive painting in the Prado but I'm biased in favor of the Sevillano painters.

[JaredL]

Duck,

You may enjoy this. When I was in high school a friend of mine was a foreign exchange student from Madrid. When I was in Sevilla I came up for a few days to visit him. We went to the Reina Sofia. After checking out the Guernica stuff we went up stairs to the modern art area. There was a pretty long hallway with a sculpture at the end. He said to me "I think my uncle did that sculpture at the end" to which I replied telling him that he was full of [censored]. We got to it and he confirmed that it was indeed his uncle. I still didn't believe him until I saw the name of the artist: Eduardo Chillida. Their sharing of the first last name confirmed that he was telling the truth. We'd been friends for over a year and he never once mentioned that his uncle is a very famous Spanish artist. Later, I heard a bit of a little tourist group I passed in Sevilla pointing out that a sculpture there was the only Chillida work in the city.

[fslexcduck]

that is indeed awesome.

[JaBlue]

[ QUOTE ]
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.
Andalusia with fields full of grain.

Et cetera ad infinitum,

T. d A. y C.

[/ QUOTE ]

wtf is this a reference to, a song?

[Boris]

I had basically the same reaction to the Prado. Too many pictures of a bleeding jesus but with some really awesome stuff here and there. Like duck, I much preferred the Reina Sofia. Given your current Hemingway kick, a trip to the Reina Sofia would have been especially well timed since that is where the Geurnica painting resides (or at least it did 10 years ago). How many foreign exchange chicks did you bang in Salamanca?

[JaBlue]

I didn't bang any eurochicks, Boris. It was one of the worst parts of my trip among many. They dig my hairstyle and I got the eye a lot but I was on a [censored] guided tour and couldn't take advantage, except for one waittress possibility but she was a generous 4. I briefly considered it because she was Morroccan but decided the novelty wasn't worth it. I was also way more apprehensive than I should have been about going out alone when we were in Spain, to bars/clubs since I don't do that here and can't dance at all as proven by a previous cabo trip. In Morrocco I didn't really wanna go anywhere happening alone, and the best company I had was some 50 yr old aussies I met on the guided tour who were really cool.

I did get some from my Au Paire friend, but she's American! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

edit: Guernica, and other paintings normally housed at Reina Sofia was at Del Prado because of the big picasso exhibit