Dear reader, I did it, finally.
It bothered me such a long time that all my visits to Barcelona were spent running around for toothpaste or working shoes, always being late, stressed, occupied with one thing or the other (I even remember spending night in Barcelona and the whole ship being under quarantine, because a passenger was potentially infectiously sick) but very rarely I actually had proper time to simply just relax and take a breath or do something for my own soul, like a visit to museum. I know every bookshop, CD place and where to buy chocolate soap, where to send postcards from - I am quite familiar with life in Barcelona - but that darn museum somehow never happened and I went there twice, twice climbed the stairs all the way up to the hill just to find doors closed on Mondays. Well, this time I was firmly determined it is now or never. Again, I did had other things to do (working clothes, toiletries, all sorts of necessary last-minute preparations and shopping) but decided it is museum first. And guess what, it was a glorious day and the palace looked like a dream - barbarian that I am, I enjoyed view at the palace more than the art inside.
Not that anything was wrong with art, of course, but getting up that hill and soaking in the beauty of the palace, waterfalls and fountains was far more exciting than actually entering the museum, because after all, I have been in countless museums so far in my life and experience is more or less very much the same - I roam from room to room, thrilled at first, than at certain point I suddenly remember that I actually don't care so much for religious art, than the overabundance of saints and virgins start to bore me and at the end my concentration wonders towards the windows, WC, chairs and where is the exit, how to get out of here. However, I must admit that I had actually spent much more time inside of this museum than usually - and realised that with surprise - so yes, it was definitely worth it and I enjoyed it more than I expected.
The entrance and the first part if all about Romanesque Art, works from ancient rural churches of this region and to my eyes it looked very rough-hewn, almost primitive and in a way very human, this was still earthy, simple art that spoke to illiterate peasants who had to recognise saints and their martyrdom's. I have seen something like this long ago in St.Petersburg, where ancient Icons served the same purpose, they seemed almost like cartoons with pictures representing how the saints were cooked, boiled and tortured for people who couldn't read and had to recognise them. Since I consider myself a heathen and barbarian, I had actually spend quite a lot of time looking at this, feeling very medieval & magical and it was Avalon & Camelot all over again. Gothic Art Collection started fine but the sheer amount of it was overwhelming and this is where I started to feel suffocation, all those altarpieces, triptychs and saints made me dizzy. Very strange sculpture representing "Head of Christ" was the most unusual and unexpected work of art here, usually it was St. John the Baptist who got this treatment. Renaissance and Baroque Art Collection was more of the same - I actually recognised El Greco and Tintoretto so obviously I'm not such ignorant as I think - but again saints and virgins hanging from every chandelier. I seriously started to enjoy finally with several wings that presented beautiful private collections that wealthy citizens left to museum posthumously - here I saw Goya, Tizian, Rubens, some unexpected Dutch and Flemish artists, Canaletto, even Dali and Picasso. Second floor was actually far more interesting because this was 19th century art collection that for some reason appealed to me much more, among paintings where was also stylish furniture (designed by Gaudi!), old black & white photo portraits, all sort of interesting posters, drawings, excellent exhibition - next time I will go straight to the second floor and simply spend an afternoon there admiring this area. I understand that religious art is historically very important and its all fine but seriously there is just so many virgins, baby Jesus and saints I can take at once. This is why portraits, panoramas and everything else gets my attention much more than another martyrdom. I am not alone in this because quite a few visitors felt restless when faced with such a huge collection of religious art and deep inside I felt sorry that these objects - once venerated and taken seriously life affirming - are now something that people don't even have interest to look at. However, I had a blast and spend the whole afternoon in there, just religious collection was not my thing but 19th century was excellent and unforgettable.
No comments:
Post a Comment