Prada Art Gallery
Musece to Prado dominated today. So many fantastic paintings. Mike and I walked over a bet before M&GL (one entry & one with book for a total of 12+22=E34 & E3.5 guide headset) My back is really sore trying to do yoga to help but limited success and Mike had a sore throat so was popping Vitamin Cs. Saw some fantastic Goya’s first – the dog, the reader, the witch all favorites. Marucia liked the famous Goya painting of the reclining nude/clothed pair. I noticed that many painted themselves into the family portraits. My favorite was the veiled marble carving of Isabella (pictured below). Also of interest the studies of reproductions. They were done by laying original over a blank canvas and pin pricking through with coloured chalk. Also of interest was painters who copied other painters works. Mostly focused on Spanish painters, but also Bottecelli, Flemish and other renaissance painters. X-rays of Rapail’s showed that he painted the whole painting with nudes then put clothes on them. This made for extremely accurate bodies.
We left for lunch having our bigger meal, I finally had oxtail with potato and Gazpacho – again with a very good Rioja. Then back for more Prada. I (Audrey) walked into a glass divider when leaving – still hurts my ear. After Prada back for a short siesta and shower. The streets seem clear today although there was some confusion as we left at about 6:30pm, but seemed to amount to nothing.
After siesta George did some reference checking to plan our evening, so off to a favorite place of Hemingway for Tortilla Espanol and beer and some great white wine. Also had a great croquette and a bunch of other less impressive tapas, (denounced to us we may have been getting some food poisoning at this meal: more to come).
We then headed to a sherry only bar Jerez El Menencly (?) where Mike was not allowed to take photos inside the bar. We had a variety of Sherries (pictures) . The fino from the “top” barrel and others of progressive darkness as they move through other barrels. Then a late night walk home through the still busy streets @ 1:30am and to bed by 2:30am. We will need a earlier start tomorrow for the drive to Bilboau (Mundaka) on Saturday.
the photos inside the Prada where obtained from the Internet. One is not allowed to take any photographs inside of the art gallary. The collection here are paintings that I (Michael) personally loved. Unfortunately, this website can not give you the true sense of the paintings scale.)
