These two heads were part of a series of about eight in this section, all by sculptor Manolo Valdés. He had a few other pieces across the way at the Caixa Forum. This was part of a special public art installation to help artists and introduce the public to sculpture. I absolutely adored his work!
The Caixa Forum is stunning. It's an outpost of the CaixaBank Foundation, a performance and exhibition space, that is also an architectural wonder. It opened in 2008, and is an amazing brick building with rusted iron details on the top. The near wall is a jardín colgante, or hanging garden, four stories high. This wall of green --containing more than 250 plants-- is just gorgeous. Inside, the stainless steel structures and high ceilings are equally mesmerizing. We caught a wonderful exhibition too, on Andrea Palladio, the 16th century Italian architect who is the base for much of modern architecture. It was much larger than we expected, had beautiful scale models of many of his buildings, and an unbelievable number of original drawings and documents. I really couldn't believe how much has survived and in what tremendous condition. And outside, more wonderful Valdés sculptures!
CaixaForum, and a pretty set of windows next door. Actually, I think this is the building of the green wall.
Wendy, then me, posing with the ladies. These sculptures are styled figures commonly found in this part of Spain, and to which I was immensely attracted. I just thought them beautiful and fun.
The verticality of the wall, and the long line of the sculptures.
The people I asked to take our photo were so happy to help! They thought it a great idea, and so asked us to take theirs too!
Before leaving, we had to stop by the restaurant. Wendy's guidebook had described it as a beautiful space, worth seeing for the "sperm-like lights" alone. Well, it was a lovely space. And yes, the light description was quite apt.
By now we needed a snack to keep us going, since we still had the Prado to do this evening. We wandered for a bit, and found a little place called Cioconat --yes, a hot chocolate house! Wendy doesn't do chocolate, but she's very accommodating of other golosas (sweet-tooths). While I opted for the chocolate con menthe (mint hot chocolate), she suffered with an amazing-looking apple tart. It worked out.
Now it was after five, so we started back to el Museo del Prado. As I mentioned earlier, this is one of the world's major museums. It's been a museum for several hundred years now, and is home to one of the best collections of Spanish and European art. I was looking forward to it.
Oops. No pets allowed on the museum's lawns.
Sadly, el Prado was not my museum. The crowds were huge, making it very difficult to move around. (Actually, as a museum person, I thought this was great. To have this many people, on a Sunday evening, taking advantage of culture, was fantastic. Moreover, many of them were young, which was even more impressive.)
Even more irritating, the map didn't match; there were galleries with artworks that weren't on the map, so trying to find them was a trick. And a number of other galleries were closed, so routes that we were trying to take were suddenly impassable as rooms became disconnected. Navigation was quite frustrating. However, the museum guide had one wonderful feature: small images of the collection highlights, and their locations in the galleries. This was really quite useful.
As it turns out, I'm just not excited by the great masters and religious art. I am eminently grateful to Wendy, though, for braving the crowds (she, too, was discouraged by this trip to the Prado) and ensuring that my experience was complete and my art education not lacking. So in a whirlwind hour, we saw a bit of everything, led, of course, by Goya and Velázquez. We also did visit the Hieronymus Bosch works, among which were The Garden of Earthly Delights. Yeah, not my thing either. But I am glad I saw them.
By this point, we realized that, excepting the half hour we took for lunch, we'd been standing in and walking around museums for eight hours. Even though we're both museum people, this was enough. I can't even remember what we did for dinner this evening, and since I have no notes on it, it apparently wasn't memorable. But the next day would be another adventure -- we were off to Segovia.
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