Cloister interior
Travelers visiting Spain for the World’s Fair in Zaragoza next
summer might consider stopping off in Madrid either before or
afterward to stroll through the newly remodeled Prado, the crown
jewel of Spain’s museums.
A project which took a decade and millions of dollars to
complete, it led to the restoration of a historic building of the
17th-century Cloister of the Jeronimos located behind the Prado
that was practically falling down in ruins. Nearly 3,000 of its
stones were dismantled, cleaned and reinstalled to make ready for
the debut in October of new galleries and an underground level
linking it with the original museum.
The cloister was visited by the rich and famous of its time, and
was meant as a spiritual retreat for kings and royalty. It’s said
Charles V spent the last four years of his life here. The adjacent
Gothic church, the oldest such monument in the city, went up
several centuries earlier and is where royal weddings took
place.
The recent inaugural exhibit of 19th-century Spanish artists
looked regal in these new surroundings, lit by artfully placed
skylights. The exhibition was a coming-out party for the
little-known sketches by Francisco de Goya, for example, and other
painters, which were brought out of storage for the first time. In
fact, having enough room to bring more warehoused works to the
public view is what prompted the expansion.
Sculpture in the Cloister of the
Jeronimos at the Prado
Sketches aside, de Goya is most famous for his paintings “The
Majas” and I decided to grab the chance to see them. Standing in
his permanent collection in the old part of the museum, I could see
why Goya was called before the dreaded Inquisition. Naughty and
nice and much smaller in size than I expected, the figure in one
painting is nude and the other is clothed, and they were painted
for a prime minister who rotated them depending on who was visiting
his home. “It was the Playboy of its time,” my guide, Susana
Jaraibo, said.
Goya was exonerated by the council but the identity of the model
remains a mystery, she said, although some claim it was the Duchess
of Alba.
A concurrent exhibit in the cloister shows earlier 16th-century
narrative religious paintings by native son Diego Velasquez along
with the works of fellow artists like Flemish painter Peter Paul
Rubens, who influenced his art. Velasquez and de Goya make up the
major holdings of the Prado along with the Old Masters of European
art.
According to Estefania Gomez, promotion executive with the
Madrid Touristic Consortium, the new Prado annex is expected to
raise the number of visiting U.S. travelers, adding that it’s being
helped along with a bigger promotion budget for the museum in the
U.S.
“Three out of four who come to Madrid go there already and we
expect more in the future,” she said.
The Prado expansion also comes at a time when the city is
launching a greater plan to unify the museum district with
renovations to steer more tourists to this cultural hive of the
Spanish capital. A Paseo de Arte (or Art Walk) is being created
with a wide tree-lined path connecting the biggest the Prado,
Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia. The Thyssen, which has a
permanent collection of 17th-century Flemish and 19th-century North
American art, and the Reina Sofia, home to Pablo Picasso’s
acclaimed “Guernica,” and other 20th-century pieces, have recently
completed sizeable enlargements to their gallery spaces.
The Art Walk is expected to be completed in 2008, in time for
May 2 celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the country’s
War of Independence. A roster of cultural events is being created
for visitors, Gomez added.
| Exclusively Online WHEN YOU GO
By Patricia Alisau Your clients may recall the works of Andy Warhol, the small-town
artist who forever changed the art world by launching the Pop Art
movement of the 1960s. They may not see his famous portraits of
soup cans or Brillo pads at the latest exhibit at the
Thyssen-Bornemisza but, not to worry, there’s an equally admirable
drawing of fellow artist/poet Jean Cocteau. The portrait of the
Frenchman comes from a private collector in Spain, part of an
exhibit titled, “Modern Masters of Drawing.” A selection of 71
works by some of the leading avant-garde proponents of the 19th and
20th centuries, the show includes Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gogh,
Gauguin, Henry Moore and Spain’s own Miro, Picasso, Goya and
Dali. After strolling the museum, head to the Royal Palace (Palacio
Real) to watch the impressive Changing of the Guard. The royal
residence of reigning King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, the palace
has just upped the frequency to once a week on Wednesdays instead
of once a month. Garbed in the dress uniforms of the 1900’s under
Kind Alfonso XII, the military guards are either on foot or
horseback. A much larger contingent of over 400 guards and 100
horses appear in a longer ceremony the first Wednesday of the
month. |
