Thyssen-Bornemisza and El Prado Museums

Notice the cerveza (beer) on the McDonald's tray

I have a dirty little secret that I rarely share with anyone, but I like McDonald's food.  So this evening, Chris and I went and had an American junk-food fix.  They have painstakingly recreated the American menú, although I can imagine it was difficult to get all of their European suppliers to understand and produce the identical products that they sell in the U.S.  There are a few differences however.  As with everywhere in Spain it seems, alcohol can be bought anywhere.  Full liquor licenses must be fast and easy, because hard liquor is sold in convenience stores, department stores, bakeries; you name it.  However, McDonald's only alcohol is beer, and it's one of the beverage options when you buy a McMeal.

Saturday was museum day for me.  I left H.B. (Chris) at home and went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum to see their extensive collection.  In 1992, Madrid was fortunate enough to obtain this impressive collection from the Thyssen-Bornemisza family, who was looking for a city to take their private collection.  It's an eclectic mix of middle ages era to contempory art and is dispalyed chronogically.  I don't think I've ever seen a collection displayed chronologically, but it made sense.  Starting with their earliest works from the 1200s through the end of the 20th century, one can view the historical advancements in western art, not only in technique, but also in the evolution of societal sensibilities, priorities, politics, style, fashion, values, mediums, and so on.  In was a very interesting context in which to view art. 

Edward Hopper's 1931 "Hotel Room"

While I realized the progression of art over the centuries, having it presented in this way keeps the observer ever-mindful of it's advancement.  It started out with strictly Catholic art, slowly moved into royal portraiture, Protestant art, noble portraiture, historical battles, historical political movements, architectural depictions, merchant-class portraiture, romantic themes, everyday scenes, revolutions, political statements, and on and on, until it ended up with pop art of the late twentieth century.  Wow.  I walked out of there dazed by how far society has come in such a (relatively) short time.  But my biggest excitement was finding Edward Hopper's 1931 painting entitled "Hotel Room".  Boom!  He's probably my favorite painter, and while I've seen plates of this painting for years, I had no idea it was here until I turned the corner and saw it.  It alone was worth the trip to the museum!



Goya's "El Tres de Mayo 1808 en Madrid"

 After the Thyssen, I went across the street and viewed the collection at the Museo del Prado again.  I haven't been there in many years and had forgotten what an enormous and impressive collection they have.  It's one of the world's most important museums and I guess I had just forgotten why until Saturday.  They have statues from Roman antiquity, and gallery after gallery of paintings from the early renaissance through the early 1900s, with the body of their works from early renaissance through the early 1800s.  Having taken some classes in Spanish culture as part of my language study here, I better understood the importance of some of the Spanish masters.  Velázquez, Goya, and El Greco are particularly well covered, but there are many, many works from many of the great masters of the rest of Europe as well. 

Velázquez´s  "Las Medinas"

While the painting to the right seems pretty snoozy by twenty-first century perspective, it was revolutionary for it's time.  It was the first time in history that a painting was a "snapshot" view of people who were captured in the moment of doing something as they stopped and looked at the viewer, who was standing outside of the canvas.  The "viewers" were the king and queen, and their reflection can be seen in the mirror on the rear wall, looking back into the painting.  Velázquez also put himself in the room, in the act of painting the scene itself.  Never before had anything like this been done and it was radical.  It challenged every artist of the day, and changed the way that they thought about paintings forever.

When I left the Prado at five o'clock, it was raining and my impacted eye was killing me from over-straining it all day, so I hopped in a taxi and zipped home to get some Advil and take a nap.  Sensory overload ...