Madrid Day 3

Michael and Judy arrived today. It is great to have them here. We are going to have a great Spain/Portugal experience I am sure. They felt pretty good so we walked to the Prado, hired an English-speaking guide, and had a very enjoyable and educational Prado tour. Our guide, Lola, was excellent. She focused on just a few, but the most important, works in the Museum.

For me the things that made the biggest impression were the rapid evolution of painting in Italy around 1400. Lola showed us several paintings close to each other chronilogically, but very different in content and style. The first was very stiff and looked much like a religious icon. The next was a huge leap in technique and content with people that actually had real forms and substance and this painting used perspective and geometry very effectively (and apparently for the first time in art history). Goya was also very interesting and we learned quite a bit about his politics. He favored the French takeover of Spain and after it failed he was exiled and spent the rest of his life in France. The Goya painting in the Prado are mostly of the Spanish royalty for whom he worked (and didn't like). Then there are two nudes which apparently were kept hidden and were very revolutionary in their time. Last, and best of all, is a very famous painting by Velasquez. Viewed from a distance it is very clear and has amazing perpective. Up close it is blurry and you really can't tell much about it. It is a painting of the artist doing the painting that you are viewing with the King and Queen reflected in a mirror. This is the painting I learned about at the Barcelona Picasso museum. Picasso believed that this was the best painting ever done and he did over 50 studies from this painting. Seeing it in person, I think he was right.

After the Prado we had lunch in a little non-descript place, walked back to the hotel, and Judy and Mike are napping.

Weather still cold and crisp. Felt like it was going to rain, but didn't.