Madrid - Big Cities and Their Art

Madrid restaurants with artful tiling.

Hopper in Paris

Park near  the Prado 

Egon Schiele-Vienna

Although small towns have a lot of unique character which draws Beth and Rob to them, large towns offer opportunities that smaller towns just cannot afford. Specifically Rob and Beth appreciate the large art galleries and exhibits found in a metropolis. In Paris they saw a Chaim Soutine exhibit at the L'Orangerie and Edward Hopper at the Grande Palace. In Vienna they discovered a new love for the Viennese artist Egon Schiele, reacquainted themselves with Gustaf Klimpt, and blushed and giggled at the "History of the Male Nude".

In Genoa the Doge’s Palace museum housed two exhibits - Joan Miro and Steve McCurry. After perusing Miro's paintings and sculptures they headed off for a late lunch as the tickets allowed for reentry. After lunch they spent a couple hours studying highlights of McCurry's photography including the famous photo of the Afghani girl with the yellow-green eyes that graced a National Geographic cover in 1984.

Free Prado After 6 pm

Miro in Genoa

In Madrid they were pleased to discover Paseo del Prado, a streets known as "museum mile" because of the seven museums within a very short distance of each other. They did not aspire to visit all of them, but set their sites on the "triangle" of The Prado, Reina Sofia, and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Similar to the three main museums in Paris - Le Louvre, D'Orssay, and Pompideau - Madrid's top three host Renaissance art (Prado), modern (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza), and contemporary (Reine Sofia) although the timeline distinctions are not as exact as found with Paris' museums.

Caravaggio: in Madrid

Modigliani:  A Beth's pic.

They are drawn most to the modern artists and find that impressionism to expressionism evicts the most emotion for them. Although they do appreciate of some medieval, Renaissance and contemporary arts, they sometimes found themselves distracted after extensive viewing.