Madrid in Depth

I’ve had a few days in Madrid now and I’m beginning to feel oriented. I’m staying in the historic center of the city, within walking distance of pretty much everything I planned to see.

I did choose to investigate a museum a bit off the beaten path so I hiked about five minutes to the nearest Metro stop near Madrid’s opera house. The stop was conveniently named “Opera” so there was no forgetting that.

Madrid boasts several world-class museums but I chose to begin with a hidden gem, the Museo Lázaro Galdiano. It was once the private collection of José Lázaro Galdiano but he bequeathed it to the Spanish State upon his death in 1947. The art is now presented in the rooms of his former residence which gave it a personal feel.

The mansion itself was a work of art with elaborate trim and lavishly painted ceilings. I appreciated the small stands in every room that provided laminated sheets (in English) explaining the significance and history of the paintings on the nearby walls. Notice, no crowds.

Appropriately, there was an emphasis on Spanish artists including several names I recognized: Diego de Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and El Greco.

Goya was particularly interesting to me. With a career spanning the late 1700s to early 1800s, he was considered a transitional artist — often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns.

Lázaro, the collector, was so impressed with Goya that he prominently featured the artist at work on the ceiling of one of his rooms.

Born to a middle-class family in 1746, Goya’s early work featured traditional portraits of Spanish aristocracy and royalty. However, after a severe illness left him deaf, his work took a dark and pessimistic turn.

Goya’s views on the social and political upheaval in Spain were expressed in his later paintings. I leaned in and studied two examples on display including “Witches’ Sabbath” (1798). The paintings could be interpreted as attacks on the superstitious beliefs rife in Spain at the time.

It’s one thing to like the way a painting looks, it’s another to understand its history and context. You begin to appreciate that the artist is still speaking to you all these years later.

The following day, I walked to Madrid’s 20th-century art museum, the Reina Sofía. The building was massive, a former hospital, featuring an open courtyard in the middle. Here, there were many more visitors to share the space including groups of well-behaved local school children.

The museum heavily featured two Spanish masters: Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. The most famous piece on display was Picasso’s 1937 painting Guernica, perhaps the most powerful anti-war painting in history.

Picasso painted Guernica in response to the 1937 bombing of the Basque Country town in northern Spain by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy at the request of Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. The painting prompted me to learn more about the war of the 1930s which essentially foreshadowed the horrors of World War II.

The canvas was larger than I expected, more than 11 feet tall and 25 feet wide. Picasso’s planning sketches and studies were displayed on an opposite wall. You could look at his preliminary work and then turn your head to see how it evolved into the finished piece. Fascinating.

It was after 2 p.m. and time for a late lunch (which is exactly when the Spanish eat). Dinners here don’t begin until after 9 p.m. I stumbled upon an outdoor cafe which looked promising, took a seat and opened the menu:

By now, I knew how to order a beer in Spanish (and the accompanying olives) but the rest of the menu was confusing. I picked the one lunch item I could translate: calamari. They arrived hot and were delicious after covering them with a squeeze of fresh lemon.

The waiter explained the desserts in much-appreciated broken English and I picked “Grandma’s house something…”. Good choice. They were fried pastries with the thick chocolate sauce you frequently get here in Spain.

Later in the evening I hiked past the Royal Palace and along Calle Gran Vía. As I mentioned, the Spanish eat very late and the streets were full of people (my pics may not show the scene — I usually waited until people had mostly cleared out of my photo).

The cool, humid air generated a hazy glow around all the lights. Staying several days here has allowed me to explore several neighborhoods beyond the tourist areas and at different times of day. Where will we go tomorrow?

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Thanks for coming along on the trip. If you have questions or suggestions, tweet @JasonRMatheson. Missed an entry? Click here.