Started posting on questions on the TripAdvisor Madrid Forum this week. I had great luck on the Paris board. Lots of helpful strategic info. One of my favorite replies linked to a Youtube site that had homemade videos of just the Louvre ceilings. Amazing and inspirational. I looked up the whole time I was there and was dazzled.
On the Madrid forum, 90% of the questions are the cheapest way to get from the airport, how to get soccer tickets, restaurant recs, best hotel at the cheapest price, and the intricacies of buying railroad tickets online. I figured my questions about art would be a welcome change or there would be crickets.
I hit the jackpot! Art lovers on Tripadvisor who have been or are living in Madrid came out of the woodwork. One great tip was a link to a blog “Every Museum in Madrid” – a kindred spirit who lived there in 2012 and explored them all. Got some excellent leads on art in churches, plus this tantalizing exhibition –
‘A Su Imagen’ is a selection of around 100 pieces of great quality and artistic value (Rubens, Murillo, Goya, Velázquez, Valdés Leal, Cranach) These are works covering a large period of time –from the 10th to the 20th century– that come from 22 dioceses and from public and private collections. Until 12 April 2015.
Note the closing date, which moves it up in priority. I probably would’ve missed it, blinded by the glories of the Prado. Now I have it plugged in on my Madrid day by day calendar.
I may not be able to pry myself out of the San Francisco El Grande Basilica, it looks so luscious. I Googled Almudena Cathedral and somehow ended up watching a video snippet of the royal wedding there. The dresses of the maids of honor looked like something out of a Velásquez court painting. And I can’t wait to visit Goya’s tomb in San Antonio de la Florida. I hope it is permitted to leave a little sketch or a very small paint brush. You can recognize the tomb of Fra Angelica in Rome just looking for the scraps of sketches, pencil stubs and tiny brushes, little offerings from artists paying him homage.
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