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Silence. Visitors next to visitors are standing there. All you can hear is their breath. Sometimes a very very silent moan. Is someone going to collapse, I’m thinking, unable to leave and make room. I want to have it…the thought appears clearly in my mind. I want to stare at it whenever I want (and if I want: the whole day). That my only desire. How could that happen? Madrid, what have you done with me?
What are we doing here?
Sept 2014, I made my dream come true and visited the european capital of art, Madrid. Since I read about the spectacular Goya robbery in one of Sidney Sheldons books, I wanted to see these masterpieces, maybe to find out if they were masterpieces also for my unexercised eye. No other city has so many museums and galleries than Madrid, and 5 days delving into art turned me into an assembler without collection.
There are 3 must-sees in Madrid, subsequent in order of fascination.
THE Prado
Unable to move for about half an hour, I was starring at the revelry in front of me. The people, their positions, the invented creatures and the colours…that all burned-in.
Source: „GardenED“ von Hieronymus Bosch (etwa 1450–1516) – www.imp.addtek.pl. Lizenziert unter Gemeinfrei über Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GardenED.jpg#/media/File:GardenED.jpg
Of course I had to buy it…the reproduction. Bad idea, as you can sit in front of it for hours, not only me but also my friends, wich makes sure that we eat cold spaghetti (that was when I used to have a flat instead of a backpack).
‘I’m afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning.’
The Prado is HUGE, and with huge I mean: wear flipflops and take enough water and food for getting lost inside for days (in time of sprint cleaning they find a lot of skeletons from tourists who entered without supplies).
The art you’ll find at Prado is the ‘classic’ one. Bosch, Botticelli (to me all of his paintings look the same), Bruegel, Goya, Memmling, Rubens, Velasquez…already bored? Welcome to the club. As much as I wanted to see the magnificient paintings, surprisingly after 5 hours I got sort of tired.
The amazing “Nude and dressed Maja” by Francisco de Goya
But I had to visit some old friends like Duerer, an artist which illsutrations every kid in Austria finds on its drawing book (usually it’s the rabbit as kids are supposed to like animals. In my opinion the rabbit is just ugly).
Duerer, Title: autorretrato (self-portrait). He was under the best looking guys of his time – what should that tell us?
‘Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.’
The court painter Velasquez is, beside Goya, the star of the Prado. Don’t miss his portrait of the royal family (Felipe IV), which is really impressive as it shows so many suppressed emotions (I don’t know if an art expert would proof me right, but who cares, art is free for interpretation!).
Now the last one from Prado, original more impressive than you’ll find it here on the blog.
Pieter Bruegel: el triunfo de la muerte
Museo Reina Sofía
Why you should go there? Joan Miró (who really likes his paintings? Pls give me a wave if you do and explain me why), Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso (Guernica, his best one as I don’t really like him so much), Salvador Dali (crazy but genius).
Also modern ones like Gerardo Rueda (never heared of him? Don’t worry me neighter, he is sort of a national sanctuary, the Protagonista a realy wierd sculpture).
‘The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our soul.’
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
You’ll find a lot of Cezanne, Van Gogh and Canaletto (honestly, San Marco has never been to beautiful pictured like he did). But what I really loved the most were the modern pieces of art you will find here.
‘Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.’
Please don’t miss Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Fränzi vor geschnitztem Stuhl (Fränzi in front of the graven chair). She doesn’t seem real, still how she looks at you is going to fascinate.
Thyssen gallery from inside, you are not allowed to take photos but everybody does…
I expected a lot from the museums in Madrid. And I got much more. It doesn’t matter if you are into shopping and party, if you never enter an art gallery or if you think Picasso and co are overrated (which means: overpriced). Give Madrid a chance to inspire you!
‘A line is a dot that went for a walk.’
NOTE: Quotes (in order of appearance): Andy Warhole, Ruiz, Picasso, Adorno, Klee
Title based on quote by Somerset Maugham