May 5--The Prado Museum

 I went on one more run this morning before we headed to Madrid to visit two different museums.

The first one was Museo Arquelogico Nacional--the MAN museum, if you will--which is SUPER cool because it's about man throughout time.  We saw an exhibit about early Iberia funeral rights, and both of the detailed statues in the exhibit were of the women they were honoring.  The exhibit talked about how these statues show how important women are in Iberic culture!

Then we saw some Roman brass work, and then we switched to a second tour guide who took us up to the third floor that is off limits to the general public right now.  (Unfortunately, there were a couple of our students who just sat down during the tour, even as we moved around the room.  We could still see them because they were in the same room as us, but they obviously weren't listening to the tour, and while I"m not perfect (I sat several times during the tour because my feet hurt, and I fell asleep in the synagogue while the retired BYU teacher spoke), but they weren't even within earshot.  By the time the tour was over, the tour guide asked for questions, and she yelled to them to ask if they any questions as well, but they were so far away they couldn't even hear her.  I guess it was a good learning experience because afterwards, our visiting professor scolded the group for how they had acted during the tour and to not do it during the rest of the Camino.)

We had time for lunch, so we went to a Papusas place that we found on the way to the Prado Museum.  For those of you who don't know, the Prado is one of the largest art museums (after the Louvre) and has some seriously famous art.  I discovered (after attending the Van Gogh exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Art) that I REALLY like art museums, so I was super excited!

I can't help sharing a few of the paintings that we saw and some tidbits about them:

1.  Santo Domingo de Silos entronizado como obispo by Bartolomé Bermejo.  Santo Domingo is beautifully painted, but what I really enjoy is that he is surrounded by seven small figures of women, each representing a virtue:

1. Temperance is seen watering down wine.
2. Prudence is studying.
3. Justice holds the scales of justice.
4. Strength holds a sword and defends a soul from a demon.
5. Faith holds the holy grail.
6. Hope is growing a tree.
7. Charity is surrounded by little children.

I have always loved the idea of these women displaying imperative virtues.

2.  Descent from the Cross by the Flemish artist, Rogier van Der Weyden.  

We studied this painting in preparation for the Camino.  It depicts:

• Jesus' body being taken down from the cross
• the mirroring of body positions between Jesus and his mother, Mary
• the mourning Mary Magdalene, and Mary of Bethany
• Joseph of Arimathea
• John the Beloved.  

I am so impressed by the level of detail.

3.  The Virgin and Child, also known as the Durán Madonna, also by Rogier Van Der Weyden

So many Catholic depictions of the baby Jesus make him a tiny MAN, but in this painting, baby Jesus plays with the book that Mary is so often depicted holding.  I think it is such a sweet and realistic depiction of a toddler Jesus.

4.  Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet by Tintoretto

There is symbolism in this painting, but that's not what I found interesting.  It hangs on one side of a cathedral so it was painted to be seen from a crowd with its right side closer to the viewer.  Because of this, if you look at it straight on, it looks like it has tons of empty space, but when you tilt it and view it from the right side, it makes perfect visual sense.  

5.  Adán y Eva (Adam and Eve) by Pedro Pablo Rubens

Sorry about the nudity.  

See the baby/serpent that is Satan? What a cool form! And I love the caring gesture of Adam reaching out to Eve.  I feel like they are rarely shown being loving to one another, but in this painting (although Adam is afraid of what Eve is going to do), he is still loving in his warning for her to not eat the fruit.

6.  The Triumph of Bacchus by Diego Velazquez

I don't know why, but I think this painting is SO well done.

7.  The Spinners also by Velazquez

For a long time, people didn't realize that his painting depicts the weaving contest between Arachne and Athena--you can see them in the background.  But more than that, the tapestry that Arachne has woven is actually a painting by Rubens called The Rape of Europe.  Velazquez was paying homage to a friend by including just a part of that in the background.  And the super cool thing? The original Ruben painting is in the SAME ROOM as this one in the Prado!

8.  Las Meninas also by Velazquez

This was supposed to be the pièce de résistance of the tour, but honestly, it wasn't my favorite painting.  Of course, because it's crazy famous, it's good to see it in person, but still...

I really enjoyed the Prado, but I was really sad we didn't get to see more of the art--only three of the eight paintings from above were ones we spent time looking at on our tour.  Everything else I knew from my Spanish culture class, or it just caught my eye.  We also barely got to see any of the Rubens nor much of Velazquez, and we didn't see ONE Goya which I was REALLY sad about because I love his twisted drawings of demons, devils and angels.  Oh, and one of the drafts for the Mona Lisa is in the Prado, and we didn't see that either.  So although I am really glad we went and had such an in depth tour, I wish we could've had some free time to see other art, or maybe just have looked at more art, but it was still so fun to go.  

And one more painting.  There was this hilarious painting of this crow bringing what seems to be a McDonald's hamburger straight at this dude on the beach. I mean, Mark said it had sesame seeds on it, so it must be from Burger King.  It was HILARIOUS, but I guess it's apparently a super famous painting (my dad tells me it's a painting of the raven that brought food to Elijah during the famine).

Anyway, after the Prado, we headed back to the university to start packing because tomorrow we start the CAMINO!!  Laundry was a bit of a hassle, but we got it done, and I'm READY TO GO!