Art Lovers discussion

Nothing on the Prado yet? Our first visit was in 1993 and we had our Spanish speaking daughter as a guide and saw a select sampling of the many paintings there thanks to her choosing which galleries to se which art works and nudging us when we began to entangle ourselves in other interesting works. We made two return visits between 1998 and 2003 -- one trip we allocated an entrie day and the second trip we spent nearly a full two days and saw a great deal of the huge museum thogh still leaving much unseen.

I am not clear which visit it was but among the most memorable art for me there was Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. There were others of his there as well which are equally "unusual" is the word I use.

And then there are the works of El Greco, especially the paintings of the disciples which occupied me for a large part of one of days at the Prado. I toured the area once at length and returned for another extended look before we departed that day as I recall.

This is a link to a list of linked el Greco paointing in the Prado including these works:

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/r/prado_...

The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch

I remember studying this and being fascinated by all the figures and what seemed like symbols in this painting.


The Earthly Paradise (left wing)


Garden of Earthly Delights (center panel)


Hell (right wing)

I must have stood around there (both extremely close up and standing back out of others' viewing range) for an hour or so and it is still endlessly interesting to examine it in detail. Thanks for getting the images up there.

We were at the Prado in 1996. I am endlessly fascinated by the Garden of Earthly delights. It was such fun to show it to my Art History students about it. They always got a kick out of this particular detail.



Las Meninas was another highlight of my visit to the Prado. It had never been a particular favorite of my before then, but seeing it in person just bowled me over.

Thanks Dottie, Heather and Ruth.
I have never seen Garden of Earthly Delights and Hell.

We have one, small artwork by Hieronymus Bosch -- The Temptation of Saint Anthony, c. 1550-75 (but it been in storage since 2008 --renovation). It is very busy and detailed. The background is a pale blue (water and sky). The foreground's palette is dark with bright reds. I could not find an image online that looks like ours.

I did get to see a work by El Greco this past spring as part of an exchange with the Prado Museum. The Wadsworth Atheneum’s sent the Ecstasy of St. Francis by Caravaggio to an exhibit in Madrid last fall, and they sent El Greco’s Holy Family with St. Anne and the Infant St. John the Baptist this spring. It was amazing.
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The Garden of Earthly Delights looks like a piece that you could gaze on for hours, and find each and every subject fascinating.

Ruth wrote: "We were at the Prado in 1996. I am endlessly fascinated by the Garden of Earthly delights. It was such fun to show it to my Art History students about it. They always got a kick out of this partic..."

This is quite mesmerizing, you can zoom into Las Meninas on Google earth and actually see the brushstrokes.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing...

Thanks, Ed.

Shocking news from Oxford: you can't play a flute with your bottom

Musicologists have replicated instruments portrayed by Hieronymus Bosch: "Only two of the 10 – a flute and a drum – turned out to be playable. The others were 'either impossible to make or painful to hear'."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/...

LOL, interesting, Ruth!

You can play a flute with your nose, we in Hawaii have this as a musical instrument.

http://www.museodelprado.es/exposicio...

Ruth wrote: "Shocking news from Oxford: you can't play a flute with your bottom

Musicologists have replicated instruments portrayed by Hieronymus Bosch: "Only two of the 10 – a flute and a drum – turned out t..."

Although, knowing Bosch, perhaps the "painful to hear" aspect was intended.

http://www.museodelprado.es/educacion...

Prado to Stay Open Seven Days a Week


By RANDY KENNEDY
The New York Times

At a time when many museums in the United States and Europe have made cuts in the face of weakened endowments and dwindling public subsidies, the Prado in Madrid announced Thursday that it planned to increase its hours to remain open seven days a week.

The museum will join several others in Europe and a few in the United States like the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in staying open every day. (The Prado, which has a general entry fee of 10 euros (about $14), will remain open even on Good Friday, when it has traditionally been closed; it will be closed only three days a year, Jan. 1, May 1 and Dec. 25.) Prado officials said the decision was part of a plan to make more money from entry fees, with a goal of eventually generating 60 percent of its operating budget through such fees and other income to help offset reductions in government support as European economies sputter.

The expanded hours begin Nov. 8 for galleries housing a special exhibition, “The Hermitage in the Prado,” and Jan. 16 for the museum’s permanent collection.