We finally went to the Prado! This art museum is incredible; often compared to the Louvre. It contains many paintings by the most famous Spanish artists: Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, and El Greco. It also contains many other great artists and paintings like Ruben's Three Graces, Heironymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, and paintings by Raphael, Carvaggio, and Titian. Our favorite artist of this visit was de Goya. His career as an artists consisted mainly of painting for the palace, as he was also a magistrate of sorts. Some of his famous paintings include the La Maja - Desnuda and Vestida, and Third of May.
We found the collection of Pinturas Negras (The Black Paintings) to be the most interesting. After de Goya's death these paintings were removed from his house, where he had painted them directly on the wall of of his basement. They are called the Black Paintings not only for their dark colors, but for the subject matter. De Goya painted these after experiencing the brutal war between Spaina and France and many of them are deeply symbolic. For example, the painting Saturn Devouring One of His Sons is thought to symbolize what Spain did to surrounding countries as well as its own people. The style of these paintings, from the early 1800s, are ahead of their time, and completely different from de Goya's earlier paintings for the aristocracy. This contrast is especially striking in a few dark paintings that depict the same subject matter as earlier paintings, like El ciego de la guitarra (The blind man playing guitar). These paintings demand more thought, but we never seem to have enough time in museums - we had to go join our group for dinner.
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