Art in Madrid

As our long-time readers know, we spend a lot of time visiting art museums when we travel, and this was true on our recent trip to Austria and Madrid. 

We have had the good fortune of going to the Prado National Museum several times now and it has become a favorite place. And each visit we experience something different. Our most recent visit was exceptional for a few reasons. First, we enjoyed visiting with Karen and Cathy Ostiller. We didn’t know Karen was an art history major at UCLA, which turned out to be a bonus for us. Her outlook and knowledge of the various artworks really added to our experience. Jeff particularly enjoyed playing “name that Saint.” Second, there was a special exhibit, A Tale of Two Women Painters: Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana, which was remarkable. As you walk through the Prado, or any other major art museum, you may not think about the fact that the vast majority of the artwork is by male artists. This exhibit brought together key works by these two women painters from the second half of the 16th century. They achieved fame and renown among their contemporaries, but their recognition became obscured over time. None of us had ever heard of either of them, but their works were just as outstanding as the works by the Prado’s masters. Finally, we encountered a “copista” at work, which was a phenomenon I had been hoping to see.

Last month I encountered a feature in the Diario Vasco about the “copistas” – copyists – in the Prado. These are artists who are permitted to copy the artwork in the Prado while in the museum. They set up an easel and paint while surrounded by the masters, and by the museum’s patrons. It’s not new, in the past many artists did this as part of their training, including Picasso. The DV article highlighted the oldest and newest copistas – an 80-year old artist who has been making his living painting copies for 50 years, and a recently retired professor who just started more for fun. There is a process to becoming a “copista,” which includes completing an application, submitting a portfolio of work, and letters of recommendation. And there are rules, including limitations on the size of a copy, prohibitions on copying certain works, and advising the nearest security guard when leaving. The article was so interesting that I planned to do (and did) my Spanish class presentation about it. Now I just needed to find one and, thanks to Karen we did.

She wanted to see Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath, which I wrongly assumed was in Vienna in the special Caravaggio and Bernini exhibit we had seen at the Kunst Historisches Museum the week before. It turns out that Caravaggio painted David with Goliath more than once. The one in the Prado is from 1600, the one we saw in Vienna is from 1607, and there is a third in Rome from 1610. If we hadn’t gone to see the painting that I assumed wasn’t there, we wouldn’t have found the copista:

Isn’t it amazing? The original and copy are nearly identical – yet based on the Prado’s rules, we know the copy is not the same size. But the best part was getting the chance to talk to the copista and ask him our questions, in Spanish, of course. At first, I didn’t want to interrupt his work, but the security guard started talking to him, so I jumped right into the conversation. We learned he had been working on the copy for more than a month, for more than four hours a day, and the painting was a paid commission. He showed us photos of x-rays done of the original, which demonstrated that Goliath’s head was originally portrayed more violently than in the final – perhaps because the original patron didn’t like how it was first done. He was fascinated to hear about the article I had read. It really was the “cherry on top” of a marvelous day at the Prado.

The next day, we headed to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which is only the third most famous art museum in the city (after the Prado and Reina Sofia). The collection of over 1600 works of art was originally the private collection of a German Baron. After marrying a former Miss Spain in 1985 and introducing her to art collecting, she convinced him to move the bulk of their collection to Spain. Eventually, the government of Spain bought the entirety of the Baron's collection, while 429 of his wife's works have been on loan to the museum since 1999. The travel writer Rick Steves describes the museum as housing "major works by minor artists and minor works by major artists". Overall, it is an enjoyable museum, but does not have the cache of the Prado or Reina Sofia.

We visited the Thyssen on this trip to see a special exhibition called The Impressionists and Photography. Since we both like the impressionists, we though we would enjoy the exhibit, and we were right. In addition to simply enjoying the art, it was really interesting to the interaction between the photography of the same time period and the art. In many cases, the museum had photographs hanging next to a painting representing the same place. We really got a great perspective on how the impressionists represented these locations, and even people. And, again, we enjoyed having Karen to provide greater insight into the art than we usually have at such exhibits.

Our next big art adventure will be at the special da Vinci exhibition at the Louvre, which we will be visiting in December on our return from visiting family and friends in California. We are looking forward to this exhibition, which celebrates the 500th anniversary of his death and apparently took 10 years to bring to fruition.

Hasta luego,

Shana & Jeff