{"id":594,"date":"2015-04-09T17:26:18","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T17:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=594"},"modified":"2016-08-21T00:25:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T00:25:04","slug":"madrid-unfiltered-april-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=594","title":{"rendered":"Madrid Unfiltered, April 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, April 8<\/strong><\/p>\n

Walked to the Prado<\/strong> down poetry street, stopping for my caf\u00e9 con latte and mini croissant at Le Bon Bon.<\/strong> I am now a regular \u2013 they get out the to-go cup and had my favorite croissant in the bag. Paused to gaze adoringly at the statue of Velasqu\u00e9z\u00a0 at the entrance.<\/p>\n

\"velasquez\"<\/a>Nabbed my no-line entry ticket and checked my raincoat \u2013 cool enough to need an extra layer this morning, but the Prado<\/strong> is always toasty inside. Instead of finishing upstairs, I went straight to The Garden of Earthly Delights<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"the-garden-of-earthly-delights-1515-7<\/a>It\u2019s twice as large in person as I imagined it was, just like Dur\u00ebr\u2019s self-portrait is half as big.<\/p>\n

\"durer22\"<\/a>The impact of scale is one of the reasons I don\u2019t content myself with looking at art online, however closely gigapixels can get me.<\/p>\n

I was a little stunned by Bosch, I\u2019ll admit it. The impact of the pretty pinks and blues and greens in the center panel depicting utter weirdness \u2013 vicious imaginary creatures, surreal buildings, and humans tortured by monsters – is like listening to Hannibal Lector whistle Mary Had A Little Lamb<\/em>. Jarring.<\/p>\n

My eye skips around, and only slowly begins to really see what\u2019s going on. There are nightmare hybrid creatures devouring humans that are trapped in a variety of inventive and horrifying way. In the third panel, Hell, it gets deeply gruesome, repugnant, repellent and fascinating.<\/p>\n

If you are wondering what a ‘fate worse than death\u2019 could be, you need look no further.<\/p>\n

Couple of things; the room has other works by Bosch, but The Garden of Earthly Delight<\/em> is the 800 pound Gorilla that siphons off the majority of the tourists, leaving his other disturbing works available to view in peace. The Haywain<\/em> is my favorite.<\/p>\n

\"Haywain\"<\/a>After a while, a sense of horror sets in.\u00a0 What kind of sick, twisted, malevolent bastard invents this stuff?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my theory. Bosch was a third generation painter, he had skills, his work sold well, and like Petruchio, he wived it wealthily. He had strong faith but was not merely credulous (he was comfortable criticizing the clergy’s excesses – see the pig in a nun’s habit in hell). He was an esteemed member of The<\/em> Illustrious Brotherhood <\/em>of Our Blessed Lady<\/em>. <\/em>When Bosch died at the ripe age of 66 the society paid good coin for his funeral mass which included music and bell ringing and special prayers. He never had to declare bankruptcy, there is no record of lawsuits or criminal behavior.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking he was like Stephen King, a popular guy who exorcized demons by for a living and went home at night happy man, easy going, kind to children, loved by his dog. Luckily for me, since they don\u2019t have many facts about his personal life, I can think whatever I want.<\/p>\n

If, like me, you\u2019d like to learn more about the social context of\u00a0 the painter Hieronymus Bosch and the Delights of Hell. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7bRBpg6eYac<\/a><\/p>\n

It took quite a few rooms of excellent Flemish and Italian paintings to shake the spell of Bosch \u2013 it burned itself into more than my retinas.<\/p>\n

Left at 2pm for a bite at the bakery I\u2019ve seen more than one of around town and has been consistently tasty \u2013 little bites of cheese and ham, peach glazed cookies, hot chocolate. Proteins seem to escape me. Afterward, I walked over to the Fernan G\u00f3mez gallery<\/strong> to view A Su imagen<\/em>; arte, cultura y religion.<\/em> It\u2019s an underground venue, literally, and across the street from the national library. Though I cannot read Spanish any better than I speak it,\u00a0 I took a photo of the library because you know, books. \"library\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have high expectations of this exhibition, but I was happily surprised. All religious in theme, and much more accessible than work at the Prado<\/strong>. No crowds which made the work easier to spend time with, but also almost no security, which made ma a little uneasy for these works by Murillo, Goya, Jos\u00e9 de Ribera, Rubens and other masters.<\/p>\n

There was one small work of Saint Joseph walking with his stepson that reminded me of my beloved spouse, who has been such a wonderful father; patient, loving, and devoted.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2862\"<\/a>Started the long walk uphill to the apartment. Feel asleep at 8 with the computer open on my lap, watching the movie on Bosch. Got into bed at 8:30, and slept through until 7am. I think I might have turned the time zone around. I feel truly rested for the first time in a week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, April 8 Walked to the Prado down poetry street, stopping for my caf\u00e9 con latte and mini croissant at Le Bon Bon. I am now a regular \u2013 they get out the to-go cup and had my favorite croissant in the bag. Paused to gaze adoringly at the statue of Velasqu\u00e9z\u00a0 at the entrance. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19],"tags":[166,202,186,130,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-madrid","8":"tag-bosch","9":"tag-fernan-gomez-gallery","10":"tag-museum","11":"tag-prado","12":"tag-velazquez","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Haywain.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-9A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2249,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/2249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}