The Come-Back, Day 26. Art as Soul Food.
We continue along in the pandemic. Today the central government decides which areas and provinces continue into Phase Three. Our region of Galicia is moving into it. In this Phase, the regional governments get more leeway on regulating mobility and gatherings, and our regional government will let people in the four provinces of Lugo, Ourense, A Coruña, and Pontevedra move from one to another, though no one can leave Galicia nor enter it without good reason. My husband will be glad he'll be allowed to cross the bridge to the green grocer's he favors, across the river in the province of Pontevedra.
Madrid will also be passing to Phase Two. This means that some museums will open, among them, the Prado. They have reorganized the museum, and closed off many halls. A trail has been set up for visitors, taking them before some of the more iconic paintings in the permanent exposition, such as Las Meninas, and both Goya's and Ruben's Saturn Devouring his Children and Saturn, which will be hanging together, so visitors can note how the two artists portrayed the same subject. There are some treasures which were not moved because they are quite delicate, such as Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, a tryptich that I pored over when I first visited the museum, some years ago.
This shortened view of the museum treasures will be maintained until September, and the entrance fee will be at half price, €7.50. The tickets have to be bought online, and a maximum of 1800 daily tickets will be sold, to avoid crowds. I don't know if the free afternoon tickets will be maintained. When we visited, entrance was free in the afternoon. It's only two hours, though, from six to eight, and doesn't give you enough time to thoroughly enjoy each hall, but it's worth it to go on more than one day, dedicating those two hours each day to a different part of the museum. But a visit like that will have to wait until we are free of the devil that has visited the world this year.
Other museums, such as the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, will also be opening with reduced entry and halls. I visited the Thyssen, but not the Reina Sofía; I don't much like modern art, and I wasn't going to pay the ticket for the entire museum to only enjoy Picasso's Guernica. At the Thyssen, we lingered in the older art halls, not the modern art section. I spent quite a bit of time looking at a Degas pastel, and I was particularly surprised to find myself face to face with Hans Holbein the Younger's portrait of Henry VIII. I'd seen the portrait in a black and white photo in an old textbook about the history of the Catholic Church a friend of my father's had given him for me (along with a bunch of other books in various large cardboard boxes). When I was little, I thought it was a photograph; until I realized that photography hadn't existed until the nineteenth century. I had always been in awe of the mastery of Holbein's work because of that portrait. I had never thought I would see the original in my life, until I came face to face with it in one of the halls of the Thyssen museum in Madrid.
The story of how it came to be there is one of, of course, lack of money. It had originally been owned by the Earl Spencer, and hung at Althorpe. But, money problems made Lady Diana's grandfather sell a great deal of art, including that portrait, to Heinrich Thyssen, a German industrialist, and father of Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. Hans inherited the art collection, and left it to his Spanish fifth wife, Tita Cervera. After his death, the Spanish government bought a part of the art collection, and Tita permanently loaned another part, and the Thyssen Museum was open to the public.
Even though I had no plans whatsoever to revisit those museums this year, I'm glad they are opening. Some day, I would like to take my husband to discover their beauty and history. Our daughter loved them, and so did I. It is true that art is necessary for the soul to thrive.
Life continues.
Madrid will also be passing to Phase Two. This means that some museums will open, among them, the Prado. They have reorganized the museum, and closed off many halls. A trail has been set up for visitors, taking them before some of the more iconic paintings in the permanent exposition, such as Las Meninas, and both Goya's and Ruben's Saturn Devouring his Children and Saturn, which will be hanging together, so visitors can note how the two artists portrayed the same subject. There are some treasures which were not moved because they are quite delicate, such as Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, a tryptich that I pored over when I first visited the museum, some years ago.
This shortened view of the museum treasures will be maintained until September, and the entrance fee will be at half price, €7.50. The tickets have to be bought online, and a maximum of 1800 daily tickets will be sold, to avoid crowds. I don't know if the free afternoon tickets will be maintained. When we visited, entrance was free in the afternoon. It's only two hours, though, from six to eight, and doesn't give you enough time to thoroughly enjoy each hall, but it's worth it to go on more than one day, dedicating those two hours each day to a different part of the museum. But a visit like that will have to wait until we are free of the devil that has visited the world this year.
Other museums, such as the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, will also be opening with reduced entry and halls. I visited the Thyssen, but not the Reina Sofía; I don't much like modern art, and I wasn't going to pay the ticket for the entire museum to only enjoy Picasso's Guernica. At the Thyssen, we lingered in the older art halls, not the modern art section. I spent quite a bit of time looking at a Degas pastel, and I was particularly surprised to find myself face to face with Hans Holbein the Younger's portrait of Henry VIII. I'd seen the portrait in a black and white photo in an old textbook about the history of the Catholic Church a friend of my father's had given him for me (along with a bunch of other books in various large cardboard boxes). When I was little, I thought it was a photograph; until I realized that photography hadn't existed until the nineteenth century. I had always been in awe of the mastery of Holbein's work because of that portrait. I had never thought I would see the original in my life, until I came face to face with it in one of the halls of the Thyssen museum in Madrid.
The story of how it came to be there is one of, of course, lack of money. It had originally been owned by the Earl Spencer, and hung at Althorpe. But, money problems made Lady Diana's grandfather sell a great deal of art, including that portrait, to Heinrich Thyssen, a German industrialist, and father of Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. Hans inherited the art collection, and left it to his Spanish fifth wife, Tita Cervera. After his death, the Spanish government bought a part of the art collection, and Tita permanently loaned another part, and the Thyssen Museum was open to the public.
Even though I had no plans whatsoever to revisit those museums this year, I'm glad they are opening. Some day, I would like to take my husband to discover their beauty and history. Our daughter loved them, and so did I. It is true that art is necessary for the soul to thrive.
Life continues.
When we were in Madrid for a conference with my limited time I wanted to see the Guernica. Just as we arrived, a guide was giving a complete explanation in English. Such luck.
ReplyDeleteThat WAS luck!
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