National Museum of Catalan Art (MNAC), 2023

We visited the MNAC in 2017, and were sufficiently impressed to spend two days there, and then a couple days more in the Pyrenees' Boi Valley, from which MNAC's world-class Romanesque art originated. We visited again April 22nd, and I took another 300 pix of the place and its collections. Comparing the current pix with the 2017 pix, I am forced to conclude that, once again, no matter how many times we visit a place, I take pretty much the same pix, of the same things, from the same angles. In 2017, I was using an actual camera and not a phone, so the best pix, probably, are from 2017:

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/04/museu-nacional-dart-catalunya-romanesque.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/04/museu-nacional-dart-catalunya-gothic.html

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/04/museu-nacional-dart-catalunya-modernist.html

also the Boi Valley posts from that year:

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/07/romanesque-churches-of-boi-valley-1.html

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/07/romanesque-churches-of-boi-valley-2.html

The following pix are of the out-takes variety in part, but there are a few things we didn't see or photograph in 2017.

Helpful wood model of the former Catalan palace which the museum
now occupies; in the next post we do a rooftop tour...

First, the Romanesque church frescoes and other art from
the Boi Valley churches...Stoning Stephen

JC/God/Holy Spirit in the mandorla thing, flanked by the twelve
(12) disciples...hmmm...

Most popular ways to persecute/kill Christian, heretics, et al.

Still processing this one

But who's counting [click to enlarge]

Skull of Adam, from a crucifixion scene

Fully clothed crucifixion for evangelicals

And then there were eleven...

A whole room of Mary and bambinos with red
rouge cheeks and foreheads...

Most interesting: this is an actual window, not trompe
l'oeil, from which the sheep's head is protruding

Moving right along, exiting through the gift shoppe,
before the roof tour, lunch, and the Modern section

Probably the best of the artsy shoppes in Barcelona;
don't buy anything till you come here

Now in the Modern section...Jardinera, by Lambert Escaler i Mila,
a sort of Green Woman bust; obviously knows something

Muy famoso and a personal favorite: Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu
on a Tandem, by Casas; Romeu had worked at Le Chat Noir in Paris
and wanted to start something similar in Barcelona...thus 4 Cats,
the cafe that was a meeting place for many of the Modernistas; Casas
was one of Romeu's backers; the painting was on loan somewhere
else in 2017; here is our 2013 visit to 4 Cats

Among the several 4 Cats posters

Lluis Masrera, Reflected Shadows, 1920

Maria Fortuny, Carmen Bastian, 1871

Ramon Casas, Self-Portrait, 1883

"Everybody look up!"

Velazquez, St. Paul, 1619

Maurice Quentin de la Tour, Portrait of Pierre-Louis
Laideguive, 18th century; learned notary

Deformed feet; or "You want a toe?"

Interim Update #1,277

We are in Paris. We left Barcelona April 24 to spend 3 action-packed days in Amsterdam, walking around and visiting old friends, doing the Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, then the Keukenhof tulip extravaganza, and then King's Day. Plus a lot of Flemish frites and some genever. We moved on to Paris today, April 28th, into our 6th Arrondisement apartment, on Rue Jean Bart, a block from the Luxembourg Gardens. Rive Gauche. We'll be here for five weeks. The blog is still in Barcelona, alas, but I hope to quickly finish up there with the National Museum of Catalan Art and St. George's Day and then move on to Amsterdam and our adventures there. Stay tuned.

Tulip World

Casa Calvet And La Monumental

Our day of recovery, after the ascent and descent of the Sagrada Familia tower, included a couple short walks, one to see Casa Calvet, another of the Gaudi-designed houses, and La Monumental, Barcelona's main (former) bullfighting ring. Any walk in Barcelona will happen by ever more architectural beauties, so there were a few more of those too.

Casa Calvet, one of Gaudi's mature works...but it
was in a nice, refined neighborhood, and the
proprietor, a textile manufacturer, told him to
tone it down...

Certainly nothing at all like Casa Battlo, etc., but still pretty nice

 

Entrance

The main floor is now a pretty nice Chinese 
restaurant, and it features some of the original
decor

We were tempted, but had just finished two nights
of Chinese...

On the building exterior

Next door, another beauty

And another

A school in the neighborhood, gearing up for...

St. Geoge's day...the day of books and roses...a subsequent post

Only a few blocks from our apartment, La Monumental, Barcelona's
major bullfighting venue

Catalonia banned bullfighting in 2010, and La Monumental now
hosts rock concerts and such; the other bullfighting venue, the
Arena, at Placa Espana, is now a shopping mall

Sagrada Familia, 2023: The Out-Takes

"Oh Lord, I beseech Thee, please get this pigeon off my
head, Amen"

"Oh when those saints, come marching in..." 

Among his more interesting religious beliefs, Gaudi
would not depict angels with wings, contending that
with the usual wings, they could not actually fly..."what
is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow"... thus
this one has a harp

Unhelpful model; but behind the reflection is our
tour guide

"We three birds of Orient are..."

Halo effect

"If I had a hammer..."

St. Darth Vader

Just really good friends

Holy door beetle

The Holy Parafoil catches a thermal and carries
Jesus up to his new home in Heaven

Rare dorsal view (thanks, Vicki)

"This space available...your message here"

Anatomically correct Jesus