Saturday, June 19, 2010

The museums of Madrid are incredible! Tim and I saw the 3 majors...Museo del Prado, Museo Thyssen, and the Museum Reina Sofia...all great and musts on any trip to Madrid....For this letter from Spain I am giving you my 5 favorite paintings that I saw at the Prado...
It has become common practice for bloggers to do a give away every now and then to their loyal readers..SO, the first person to respond in the comment section at the bottom of the blog telling me which of these 5 is their favorite and why will receive a book on the Prado Museum as a gift from me...so get your art glasses on (remember you can click on the picture to make it larger to really study it) and let me know which one you love and what it is that you respond to in the painting...Enjoy!

I love the juxtaposition of the new addition with the shrub covered roof with the old building

I am now an urn and statue freak after seeing all of the ones in Spain! these are on the front facade of the Prado


Tim and I were very lucky to have a "guide" with us to see the Prado...our Madrilleno friend Antonio Sanchez Casado who worked in the furniture department of the Prado for a few years and has written books on art took us through the museum....focusing primarily on the masters Goya, El Greco, and Velasquez, we got a wonderful Spanish history lesson through the art...

I am not one to long to look at religious art so you will see that my favorites are not of that sort...

I am now OBSESSED with the paintings of Patinir, an artist I knew about but had not been fortunate of to be exposed to...the use of varying shades of intense blues is fantastic!

Joachim Patinir (1480-1524)
Landscape with Saint Jerome
Oil on Panel
c. 1516/1517

Here again, one of my favorite pieces from the entire trip....

El Bosco (1450-1516)
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Oil on Panel Triptych
c. 1500-1505

Diego Velazquez
View of the Gardens at the Villa Medici, Rome
Oil on Canvas
c. 1630

Another painter whose work I had not seen before, Aureliano de Beruete:

Aureliano de Beruete (1845-1912)
El Manzanares
Oil on Canvas
c. 1908

and the master, de Goya!

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)
The Strolling Players
Oil on Tin Plate
c. 1793


Don't forget to pick your favorite and let me know which it is....

Adios...

Jeffery

3 comments:

Linda M said...

My favorite is Aureliano de Beruete’s El Manzanares. I love the light and the impressionistic style. I would love to know the sizes of the paintings. I will pull out my art history book from college. (It is really old) I would like to try this with watercolor to see if I can achieve the same feeling. It is strange that a medium that is so opaque and thick can appear so light and airy.

Keep the letters coming. I love it!

Linda Moncla

Jeffery McCullough said...

Keep the comments coming....there can be more than 1 giveaway and I love the feedback and interaction with everyone..you can also email me your favorite as well..

Jeffery

JB said...

my favorite artwork is Francis deGoya's "The Strolling Players". I love the colorful, whimsical colors of the characters costumes on the toned background! What an experience you guys must of had on this fab trip!!!