Some Pictures from our July 2008 visit to Spain, July 9th to July 23th |
| Day 1 New York |
Day 2 Madrid |
Day 3 |
Day 4 |
Day 5 |
Day 6 |
Day 7 |
Day 8 |
Day 9 |
Day 10 |
Day 11 |
Day 12 |
Day 13 |
Day 14 |
Day 15 |
Page Fifteen. Our Second Full Day in Barcelona.We enjoyed most of the day (about six hours) in Barcelona's Museum of Fine Arts.
| Back to the previous day. | Forward to the layovers. |
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| Impressive roofs at Plaça de Catalunya. | Tower at CaixaForum in Barcelona | A second tower at the CaixaForum in Barcelona. |
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| When it comes to fighting dragons and the devil, we can count on Saint George and the Arch-Angel Michael. Here we have Saint Michael victorious over evil (the dragon) from the altar panel from Suriguerola (Gerona), made in the second half of the 13th century. | A soul is weighed to determine its fate. The angel wants to claim the soul for heaven, but a devil is pulling down on the bad end of the scale. This is another episode from the Antependium from Suriguerola. There are still artisans making this sort of thing if you want a painting like this in your place of worship. | A Crozier from first half of the 13th century or perhaps a bit earlier. I think this is from Mondonedo (Lugo). |
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| Central apse of Sant Climent in Taüll shows "Christ in Majesty" or "christ the Pantocrator, Ruler of the World" with the signs for alpha and omega by his shoulders. Impressive inspiration from 1123. | Batllo Majesty, (Majestat Batlló) a masterpiece from the mid-12th century. Unfortunately, you can't quite make out the writing due to the light's reflection in this picture, but the words say "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews". | Frontal from La Seu d"Urgell. The Apostles. From the second quarter of the 12th century (between 1126-1150). This is another image of Christ Pantocrator, as ruler of the world in majesty and glory. |
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| The angels here include Saint Mathew (I think he has his name spelled out, near the top). The Arch-Angel Gabriel is probably the one on the bottom left. | This Seraph has eyes all over its body representing the all-seeing power of God and the Heavenly Concourse. Isaiah is in the lower right, having his vision. This was painted in the first half of the 12th century in the church of Santa Maria in Aneu (Lérida). | These devils don't stand a chance against the angels who are tormenting them. |
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| What was on the menu for the Last Supper? By the looks of this, not much. Where are the sauces and the various vegetables and breads that should accompany that meat dish, and what sort of meat is that? (This is the Last Supper from the monastery altar at Sijena, painted by Jaume Serra and his associates around 1370). | The Last Supper: the painters of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance seem to agree that there wasn't much meat, but what sort of meat was it? Is that supposed to be a lamb? | I also notice in these paintings of the Last Supper it seems Judas Iscariot is gesturing toward that horrible main course. Maybe one reason he betrayed Jesus was because he was upset at the food they served. |
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| Painted decorations featuring knights, painted at the times when knights really were out hunting and jousting and fighting. | This is an image of Saint Barbara being baptized from a series of paintings about the life of Saint Barbara. The museum claimed it was Saint Valentine baptizing her, but I think the legend is that Origen of Alexandria came to baptizer her. | I saw many paintings by El Greco during our trip to Spain, but most were in museums or cathedrals or churches that didn't allow photographs. At the MNAC I was finally allowed to photograph this inspiring painting of Christ carying the cross. |
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| A disturbing image by the radical painter and activist Helios Gómez (1905-1956). | A Quartet, drawn by Man Ray (1890-1976) in 1917. | The lovely Granadina (Woman of Granada) painting by Hermen Anglada Camarasa (1871-1959) |
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| Here is a view of the large room in the Palau Nacional, the 1929 home of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC). | The Palau Nacional (National Palace) makes a good home for the Catalan National Art Museum (MNAC). | This is a view looking up inside one of the domes in the Palau Nacional. |
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| One of my favorite paintings in the MNAC is this study of nature and femine power by Joan Brull (1863-1912). Brull was one of the artists in Barcelona involved with the Art Nouveau movement. I guess this painting is "Girl Feeding A Goose" or something like that, as I can't understand Catalan, but the title is Nena donant menjar a una oca. | If you look carefully at the larger image you might be able to figure out that the hill in the center distance is Park Guell. | A painting by Dario de Regoyos (1857-1913). A rainbow at the beach. The clean clouds in the background and the pure rainbow certainly seem more appealing than the smokey steamer in the middle of the picture. One must think of Noah's Ark and the Covenant with God, and then compare this image with the trade and commerce going on here after what must have been a brief summer shower. |
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| One of the hundreds, or even thousands, of lovely buildings in Barcelona. I think this one is the Hotel Catalunya Ramblas, but I don't really know. Anyway, it looks much more expensive than the place where we stayed. | A view of the Sagrada Familia from the steps of the Palau Nacional in Barcelona. | We were very pleased with our stay in the Hotel Continental, right on the Ramblas. The door to our building was adjacent to a shop named "Springfield," which was easy for us to recognize, since we are from Springfield (Illinois). |
The next day we flew back toward home. I had an eight hour layover in London and a 20-hour layover in Montreal, and Chun-Chih had a 15-hour layover in New York because her connecting flight from JFK to Saint Louis was cancelled. | Back to the previous day. | Forward to the layovers. |
