Well, you'd have to be living under a rock if you didn't know that Spain is in the championship for the World Cup--they're very first time in the finals. The match is this Sunday and we are all planning on going to La Plaza de Cibeles for a public viewing of the game after a day of tapas and canas with Carlos. Spain has already surprised me thus far, so I can't even imagine what Madrid will look like if they become World Champions! We watched the game last night in the same bar in Sol, the heart of Madrid, and it was an absolute riot. I loved seeing Madrid so alive and full of people. The metro and the campus was alive and full of people. In fact, I had a hard time falling asleep thanks to the chanting and partying going on outside my window. But its worth having a couple bad nights of sleeping for this once in a lifetime experience. All I can say is its perfect timing to be here :) As my Dad pointed out, I have visited 3 out of 4 countries in the semifinals---I think I am good luck to all this futbol. Soooo Viva Espana!
Before watching the game last night we visited El Museo del Prado in Madrid. It took over 2 hours to walk through, and after I saw my favorite Spanish artists, I was pretty much done with the whole thing. I had studied Spanish artists in my Culture of Spain class in undergrad and fell in love with Diego Velazquez. His art is very life-like, and even though its very realistic and naturalistic, he finds ways to make them interesting (like painting himself into them or adding unexpected dimensions). Most of his counterparts during the 17th century did mostly mythological and religous pieces, but Velazquez was invited to be part of the court for Felipe IV, so he did many royal paintings. My favorites from him are: "Las Meninas" (has many dimensions, interesting additions---like a puzzle everytime you look at it. I probably stood in front of it for a good 30 minutes), "Los Borrachos" (the drunks), "La Crucifición" (The crucifixion of Christ--usually once you've seen so many of these you've seen them all, but his is really brilliant and stands out above the rest in my opinion), and "La Rendición de Breda" (The surrender of Breda, where he painted himself, perhaps several times, into the crowds of Spaniards and the Dutch after a war---coincidence??) I was also looking forward to seeing Goya but was honestly not impressed by him. I was very impressed with El Greco, however, which was very unexpected. I especially loved his "loose hand" period, where instead of everything having very smooth lines, they're more jagged. It may seem more unrealistic to many, but to me its more real. Amongst so many other religous paintings, his six paintings from the "Retablo Mayor" stand out as elegant, moving, and focused (even though each is full of different images, there is still a focus--thats what I enjoy most about them). Visiting The Prado made me so much more excited to visit El Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, where works of more modern Spanish artists are. Ones I'm thrilled to see are Dalí, Picasso and Miro---AND this museum is home to "Guernica." I'll probably spend an hour in front of it....
