More Madrid Museums

You may recall that I was supposed to visit 3 museums on Day 6, but I only made it to 2 because the Naval Museum was closed. I made up for it on Day 9 when I visited the Naval Museum in between my visits to the 2 museums I had already planned on seeing that day. Partly because of loading up the day with museums, I once again am splitting the day into 2 posts, like I did for Day 8.

National Archaeological Museum

Welcome to the *Museo Arqueológico Nacional* (the National Archeological Museum).

I started off in the morning of Day 9 at the National Archeological Museum. I found this museum to be utterly fascinating. I learned a lot about the early history of Iberia from my visit.

Prehistory

Even before we get to the history of Iberia, we get to the history of man. Here are a couple skulls from extinct archaic human species.

The Prehistory period of Spain and Iberia is considered to begin with the arrival of early humans and to end with the arrival of the Phoenicians around the 9th century BC.

A reconstruction of the species *Homo ergaster*. *Homo ergaster* lived around 1.6 million years ago in Africa and was the 1st hominid to display fully human anatomical and behavioral traits.

Before visiting this museum, I hadn’t really thought about how a succession of hominid species evolved in Africa and migrated to other continents. I had only thought about Homo sapiens migrating out of Africa. But of course Neanderthals and other species also had to migrate out of Africa to be found in Europe and other places.

Look very closely at this shoulder bone from the Paleolithic era, and you can see etchings of a horse.

Protohistory

The *Lady of Elche* is one of the prize pieces in the museum’s collection. The limestone bust is believed to be from the 4th century BC. It’s a creation of the Iberian culture.

The Protohistory period of Spain and Iberia began when the Phoenicians arrive, bringing with them a new technology: writing. Thus, history began on the Iberian Peninsula.

How cool are these bronze bulls from the 5th-3rd century BC? The ears and horns were cast separately and riveted to the heads. Riveting!

Roman Hispania

When the Romans conquered the peninsula, what did they do? They laid down the law. This bronze slab from the late 1st century is the *Lex Malacitana*, the law of the Roman city of Malaca, known today as Málaga.

The Roman Hispania period began when the Romans completed the conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 19 BC after 2 centuries of warfare.

A close-up on the Roman script on the *Lex Malacitana*.

This 3rd-cenury mosaic depicts the quadriga of a red team that won a chariot race. Chariot drivers, usually slaves, typically began their training at the tender age of 10.

Some of you must know by now how much I love Roman mosaics. At the National Archaeological Museum, it was an embarrassment of riches when it came to Roman mosaics. I wanted to take pictures of all of them. And I took more pictures than I’m including in this post, including large-scale floor models.

This late 2nd-century mosaic depicts the Genius of the Year. The Genius of the Year was a divine force in Roman mythology that controlled the changing of the seasons. It’s traditionally depicted with a cornucopia.

Late Antiquity

One of the great treasures of the National Archaeological Museum is the collection of selected items from the Treasure of Guarrazar. The complete treasure consists of 26 votive crowns and gold crosses from the Visigoth Kingdom. Dated to the mid 7th century, the treasure was discovered in a town near Toledo in the mid 19th century. Each piece is made of gold and encrusted precious gems.

The Late Antiquity period corresponds to the fall of the Roman Empire and the reign of the Visigoths over the Iberian peninsula.

Middle Ages

This interesting item is a chest from the cathedral of Palencia, a city in the northwestern part of Spain. It was crafted by an Islamic artist in the mid 11th century from wood, ivory, copper, and enamel. The chest was donated to the museum by the bishop of Palencia, but it was created in Cuenca, a city between Madrid and Valencia.

The Middle Ages in Iberia correspond primarily to the period when the Moors ruled much of the peninsula.

Well, the National Archaeological Museum was so fascinating that it took me quite some time to get through it. As a matter of fact, I didn’t get through the whole thing. Especially as I had added a museum to the day, I had to get moving. So on it was to…

Naval Museum

*Portolan chart of the Mediterranean Sea* by Mateo Prunes, 1563. Portolan charts are nautical charts initially made in the 13th century to map the Mediterranean. Mateo Prunes was a notable 16th-century cartographer from Mallorca. Mallorca was a hotbed of cartography. Through the 15th century, the Majorcan cartographers were predominantly Jewish. This changed, unfortunately, with the start of the Spanish Inquisition.

The Museo Naval (Naval Museum) is one of the cultural institutions along the Paseo del Prado. It covers Spain’s impressive naval history starting with the end of the Reconquista. This time in history corresponds to Christopher Columbus setting off for India and mistakenly bumping into the Bahamas, setting off the Age of Discovery and the global exchange of diseases. Spain quickly became the world’s leading maritime power.

*First homage to Christopher Columbus* by José Garnelo y Alda, 1892. Alrighty then. You may be surprised to learn that none other than Pablo Picasso was a student of Garnelo.

This painting was created for the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the Caribbean, leading to the colonization of the Americas by Spain and Portugal.

*Universal Chart* by Juan de la Cosa, 1500. This is the oldest known chart to feature the Americas. That would be the large green blob to the left. The Antilles are presented in more detail because they were the American lands the Spanish knew best at that point.

Juan de la Cosa was owner of the Santa María and accompanied Columbus on his 1st 3 voyages across the Atlantic.

*Globe* by Vicenzo Maria Coronelli, 1688. Coronelli, a Franciscan friar from Venice, was one of Europe’s most notable cartographers in the 17th century.

*Uniform of lieutenant general of the Army and Navy*, 2013. Now that is a puffy shirt!

Palace Hotel

The Palace Hotel–now officially known somewhat awkwardly as The Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Madrid–opened in 1912 directly across Paseo del Prado from the Hotel Ritz, where I had lunch on Day 6. The Neptune Fountain, seen above in front of the Palace, sits between the 2 grandes dames. The Palace was built because King Alfonso XIII decided that Madrid needed not 1, but 2 Belle Époque luxury hotels. It was the largest hotel in Europe when it opened, and it was the 1st European hotel to feature en-suite bathrooms.

Thyssen Museum

*The Crucifixion* by Vitale de Bologna, 1335. The work looks very modern to me, like El Greco works do. Vitale de Bologna was a painter who was working in Italy on the cusp of the Renaissance.

By visiting the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum or Thyssen Museum for short), I completed Madrid’s Golden Triangle of Art. I had visited the Reina Sofía Museum on Day 1, and I had visited the Prado Museum on Day 6. The Thyssen Museum has its roots in the private collection of Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon, a Hungarian-German entrepreneur and art collector. The baron’s daughter-in-law, Miss Spain 1961, was instrumental in bringing much of the collection to Madrid, where an 18th-century ducal palace along Paseo del Prado was available for showing the collection along with other works acquired by the Spanish government. The baroness remains involved with the operations of the museum and maintains ownership of the museum’s works that are from her private collection.

*Portrait of a Stout Man. Robert de Masmines (?)* by Robert Campin, 1425. The detail on this portrait is fantastic. We’re getting into the early Northern Renaissance now. Campin was an early Netherlandish artist in what is now Belgium. He created 2 nearly identical versions of this painting. The other is in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Robert de Masmines, the possible subject, was a Burgundian knight and a Holy Roman Empire governor.

Of course I had to capture these 2 paintings by El Greco, both titled *The Annunciation*. The 1 on the left is dated 1596-1600. The 1 on the right is dated 1576.

*The Young Musicians* by Antoine Le Nain, 1640. Antoine was 1 of 3 French brothers who were all painters. This painting is quite charming, don’t you think?

*Portrait of a Man from the Island of Dominica (?)*, 1770-1780. This painting was initially believed to have been painted by iconic American painter Gilbert Stuart, but it’s now believed to be the work of the circle of British painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

*Portrait of Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland* by John Singer Sargent, 1904. I was SO excited to see this. I had just recently seen the *Sargent and Spain* exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. And now I was getting to see a work by Sargent (one of Boston’s favorites) in Spain!

*Fränzi in front of Carved Chair* by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1910. Kirchner was 1 of the founders of Die Brücke, an early form of Expressionism founded in Dresden.

*Summer in Nidden* by Max Pechstein, 1921. I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that this was a Gaugin. Wouldn’t you have? Pechstein was another member of Die Brücke. This isn’t a painting of a South Pacific scene, like a Gaugin likely would have been. Nidden is the German name for a resort community in Lithuania. Who knew!

*The Cock* by Marc Chagall, 1928. Marc Chagall was, of course, a well-known Russian-French artist.

*Composition No. XIII/Composition 2* by Piet Mondrian, 1913. I never in a million years would have guessed this was a Mondrian. Would you have?

*The Dazzling Outcast* by Matta, 1966. Roberto Matta was a Chilean artist known for creating large-scale surrealist 3-D works such as this.

And speaking of surrealism! *Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking up* by Salvador Dalí, 1944. Feel free to interpret this dream.

*Hotel Room* by Edward Hopper, 1931. Ah, look at all the lonely people. That’s what Hopper would have us do.

A distorted bull? Could it be? Yes, it is! *Bullfight* by Pablo Picasso, 1934.

*Portrait of Dr Haustein* by Christian Schad, 1928. Is that Nosferatu creeping up behind the good doctor? Schad was a German painter who was part of the New Objectivity movement, which rejected Expressionism. Yet he seems to be expressing something with that shadow. (Or is it a Schad-ow?) Dr. Haustein was a prestigious Jewish dermatologist who specialised in venereal diseases. In the portrait, a specialized medical instrument is tucked under his arm. The shadow seems to indicate Schad didn’t totally reject Expressionism.

At the time of my visit, the museum was hosting an exhibit called In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s, possibly inspired by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The paintings above and below were featured in the exhibit.

*The Invalids* by Anatol Petrytskiy, 1924.

*Walking in Southwark 2* by Julian Opie, 2014. I loved this bright contemporary piece by in-demand British artist Opie.

POW! *Thunder Smash* by Charles Bell, 1977. It’s hard to believe Bell–a photorealist from Tulsa, Oklahoma–had no formal art training.

It was great to finish up my stay at the Thyssen (not to mention my visit to 3 museums) with these 2 vibrant pieces. But the day wasn’t over yet.

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]