A Short History of Spanish Art

The Museo Nacional Del Prado
Our visit to Madrid included a brief tour of the Museo Del Prado, one of the most important art museums in Europe. Our guide, Gema Gonazalez Gal, who's first name translates to "precious stone" turned out to be a real gem. She gave us a background of spanish art from the 16th century to the modern era using three period artists. We first learned about El Greco, who was born in Greece but moved to Spain where he painted his most important work.

El Greco is really a nickname as he was born Doménikos Theotokópoulos which the spaniards had trouble saying so since he was from Greece he was called El Greco, The Greek. His paintings represent the mystics or the spirituality of the time. As Gema pointed out, the bodies are drawn thinly, to represent ascension. The colors are vivid, but not realistic helping the painting transmit the "life to come" rather than the reality of the time. El Greco died in 1614 so his work is representative of the Spanish Renaissance.

Velazquez picked up where El Greco left off. One of his final works is his masterpiece Les Meninas which as Gema explained is a "snapshot" of the royal court. Velazquez learned a great deal about geometric perspective and the piece catches a glimpse as if you were the royal couple looking into his art studio as he was painting "Les Meninas." Velazquez himself is in the painting and as you step back he creates a three dimensional impression of the room.

The third painter Gema identified as one of the truly great spanish masters is Goya. He is remembered for looking at some of the darker situations in life. He captures on canvass two historical dates, May 3 and May 8, 1808 when the Spanish were fighting Napoleon. You can see the atrocities being committed by the French troops in a scene depicting a firing squad. The white shirt denoting innocence while the troops who's faces are not shown because war is anonymous.

The visit to the Museo Nacional Del Prado turned out to be one of the highlights of our two week tour. We sing tonight, our final concert in Spain, in the small town of Avila, in the Auditorio San Francisco. Avilia is about an hour and a half from Madrid.