Tales of a tourist

Managing Madrid with Spanish limited to merely sí, no, and gracias should have been tricky, but I found the Spanish to be incredibly friendly and helpful, and often just pointing at a map or stumbling over the impossible-to-properly-pronounce place names was enough for me to find the tourist destination we were headed for! Credit to the Spanish for their willingness to help, even when their English is just as bad as my Spanish.

My time in Madrid saw visits to the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, home of arguably the best football club in the world: Real Madrid (their claim, not mine!). It was particularly impressive, even for a non-football fan! Also worth a visit if you are ever popping by was the Palacio Real, the Buckingham Palace of Madrid and although the royal family prefer not to live there, the palace is often open for official state occasions. The beautiful décor and rich history were fascinating, and everyone loves pretending to be a royal princess/prince for the day, no?

Finally, a must-see in Madrid is the Museo del Prado. Free entry weekday evenings meant the queue left me a bit dizzy but two hours later and it was the rooms and rooms of art making my head spin. Quick apology to any serious art lovers, I’m no art critic, but personal favourites included:

El jardin de las delicias (The Garden of Earthly Delights), El Bosco (Bosch)

 

 

I half hoped that I would be the woman to finally crack the secret of this painting, but when I arrived at it, it was clear there was no chance! A small crowd had developed around this masterpiece – the first time I have ever seen a crowd in an art gallery, famed for being such open, empty spaces! – and the complex painting left me reeling. Rich in colour and full of life, this painting is surely better described as a labyrinth, but I instantly knew why it has been loved, and will be loved, forever.

Pinturas negras (The 14 Black Paintings) especially Perro semihundido (The Dog), Francisco de Goya

Painted when in Goya’s last years, these paintings depict an artist troubled by a fear of insanity, demise and impending death, with a particularly bleak outlook on life. The lightest of all these very dark and disturbing paintings, it is the lightness, and the choice of such a ‘happy’, bright colour for the background, that makes this painting, for me, the most unsettling of them all. What appears to be just a dog and is only revealed by its title, I still cannot decide whether I love this painting or hate it, and hate Goya for painting something so horrifically desolate and disquieting.

The Agony in the Garden, Titian

 

In all four of the apostle’s gospels, they write that moments before he was seized by Roman soldiers, Christ spent time praying in an orchard on the Mount of Olives with his friends. Usually this image includes Christ in the foreground, but Titian places him at the top of the painting, below him only darkness – it is hard to make out the rest of the painting. This type of painting is known as a ‘nocture’, where there are few, highlighted light sources, and was a very popular type of painting in the 16th century, when Titian completed this work. The pain and suffering of Christ is depicted in the darkness of the painting, where he is a beacon of hope and future happiness as the only light source in the image.

The Three Graces, Peter Paul Rubens

 

 

These three women represent Aglaia, Euphrosine and Thalia, who, according to Hesiod’s Theogony, were pure virgins born of one of Zeus’ affairs and living with the gods. For me, this painting is full of life, and quite clearly represents the artist’s state of mind at the time he painted it: having recently married, Rubens was feeling particularly in love, and the figure on the left bears resemblance to Hélène Forment, his second wife. The classical suggestions and warm colours make this painting very different to Goya’s troubled black paintings, but equally as beautiful.