The Prado

I finally went to the Prado museum for the first time two Saturdays ago, -I know, crazy, right?- the second most important art museum in the world after the Louvre in Paris. A renewed interest in art after my stint in the Benelux, and a sudden interest in seeing the copy of La Gioconda or the Mona Lisa drew me to the museum that weekend. When I arrived it was bursting at the seems with people eager to see the the Prado´s Mona Lisa which apparently had been found recently among the museum´s holdings and had been restored to its former self so this was bigs news in the art world. I wasn´t able to see her during my first trip because the museum closed before I could. I had been too enveloped by Spanish painting on the second floor. Nevertheless, I was very glad to finally see artwork by my favorite Spanish painter, Velázquez, including his masterpiece and most viewed work at the Prado, Las Meninas (Maids of Honor). That day I had admired French and Italian painting, especially works by Titian who is well represented at the Prado as he was court painter to Emperor Charles V. The rest of time I was mesmerized by Spanish greats José de Ribera, Mazo, Zurbarán, El Greco, and of course Velázquez. The Surrender of Breda and Las Meninas, two works that I had studied about were larger than I had thought. In fact, there were so many people in front of Las Meninas that I had to wait several minutes just to look at it up close. It was beautiful. I felt that I was being pulled into the scene by the gazes of all the people in the frame, especially by the Infanta Margarita. For a moment I was at the court of King Philip IV.

Needless to say I was so fascinated by the Prado that I decided to return a week later. I went through the Goya entrance again and wandered through the Flemish section and was very impressed by the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens, especially his Adoration of the Magi. After admiring some of Goya´s work, I went downstairs and meandered through the section of German painting highlighted by Albert Dürer´s Self-portrait. I noticed the museum was closing soon so I paced through the other Italian section only stopping to admire some works by Raphael before finally being pulled in by La Gioconda and the sea of people that surrounded her. When I saw her I was in awe. She was beautiful and, dare I say, more impressive than the original Mona Lisa. Granted, I have never been to the Louvre, but from having seen pictures of the original all my life the copy seemed like the better of the two. Supposedly she had been painted by one of Leonardo Da Vinci´s pupils. The interesting thing is that both she and Infanta Margarita from Las Meninas look straight at you with a mixture of intrigue and indifference.

So far, I have only seen half of the museum if even that. I didn´t even get to see any Bosch and the museum is known for having a huge Hieronymus Bosch collection, so that will probably be my main objective next time I go. And I´ll try to stop writing about art because you are probably sick of that. Hasta Luego.