The Road Goes Ever On

Monday, April 17, 2017

Museu Nacional d'Art Catalunya: Gothic

The MNAC possesses a great collection of international Gothic (pre-Renaissance, mostly 13th-14th century, golden halos, etc.) art, mostly regional. Most of the paintings, as with international Gothic generally, are untitled and their authors are unknown...usually they're displayed as something like "martyrdom of St. Beyonce" by the "master of Paducah." By the 15^th century, paintings were becoming titled and signed. The MNAC has a decent collection of later paintings too, including some by great non-Catalan masters, and it was fun to see a few works by Pedro Paulo, Cranach, Velazquez, Fragonard, Theotokopoulos, and others. (It's been a while). And there was one, a transition piece from gothic to northern renaissance, using the new medium of oil, that was a total knock-out for me.

Sailing, sailing...

Knights in conversation, a rarity

Chop off heads, drop body parts down well...

Books, especially by heretics, make good fuel

Judgement scene

Special manual on persecution of women

Note the special clue on Judas (the one without the halo)

Crucifixion of St. Peter (corrected)

Sideways crucifiction of St. Andrew

X'd-out crucifixion of someone else; by this
time the Romans must have been getting pretty
tired of all the crucifixion "special requests";
no, wait, maybe these are Moors

Which is why burning at the stake grew in
popularity

The knock-out: Lluis Dalmau, Mare de Deu dels Consellers,
1443-45; in 1431, the king of Catalan, Alfons the Great, sent
his court painter, Lluis Dalmau, to Flanders to learn the new
style and the new method of oil painting of Jan van Eyck; and
this painting is one of the results; it lacks the color, the
glistening, and the detail of a real van Eyck, but Dalmau
learned his lessons quite well; the new painting was in its
infancy; the Ghent Altarpiece had been unveiled scarcely a
decade before; news traveled traveled pretty quickly in some
places, although it took a few more generations to reach Italy

One of several halls in the Gothic section

Speaking of the new style, from the workshop
of Rogier van der Weyden

Only painting I have ever seen of Mary and
Baby J with Baby John the Baptist not dressed
in his skins; hmmm, Baby J seems to be
ignoring both his Mom and young St. John...

Theotokopoulos, Peter and Paul (Mary was
sick that day)

Workshop of Ditto, John the B and St. Francis, adoring the
mystic lamb; Sacred Conversation

Velazquez' St. Paul

Pedro Paulo Rubens, Lady Aletheia Talbot,
Comtessa d'Arundel (she was passing through)

I can spot and shoot a Fragonard before the camera can focus it

Also a Cranach (same model as always)

Goya, Allegory of Love, Cupid and Psyche

Museu Nacional d'Art Catalunya: Romanesque

Don't dismiss the Museu Nacional d'Art Catalunya as merely regional. Indeed, it is regional, but the region is world-class, and its holdings are of great interest. We visited the Romanesque, Gothic, and Modernista sections, and, constraining myself, I'll try to do just those three posts. The Boi valley in the nearby Pyrenees has a number of Romanesque era churches. In order to preserve the great murals within these ancient and deteriorating churches, the murals were carefully removed to MNAC and there brilliantly displayed. It is one of the largest collections of Romanesque paintings in a museum—we have seen quite a few in situ—and the pride of the collection.

Back story

Stoning Stephen

Domes and such--sometime entire halls--constructed in the
museum to display the murals

Feather dancers (angels) straight out of
Byzantine style

Manual of how to persecute Christians

Unfinished bits

Recreation of church of St. Climent in Taull

There to display the best of the several Pantokrators, indeed,
the emblem of MNAC

Sculpture too, principally capitals

"Um, I was told it is a clothing-optional beach and that our
snake friend was welcome too"

Desperately needs caption

Big G in his mandorla-thiink

Even with his foot on the scale, the devil loses...except that
"multitudinem damnamdorum, paucitas salvandorum" (a
favorite Medieval saying..."many damned, few saved")

Also desperately needs caption

Santa Maria in Sigena: click to enlarge

The discoloration was caused by the 1936 fire; what is
remarkable, to us, is the individuality, the emotion depicted
in these very early 13th century pix...something Giotto would
aspire to generations later

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Montjuic

Somehow, our visits to Barcelona have never taken us to Montjuic, a great hill overlooking much of the city, which includes the National Museum of Catalan Art, numerous other museums, gardens, the Olympic stadium, and much more. We began trying to make up for this lapse with two days of visits, mostly at the national museum.