Madrid Unfiltered, April 11 & !2

Saturday April 11 and Sunday April 12

Me in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes is like a kid alone in a candy story. There were only a few other visitors, so ample access to every work of art. And this is mundane, but there were couches and benches in almost every room. I gotta say, after weeks standing on cold, hard marble floors it was enough to make me weep with gratitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was, to be sure, a lot of chaff amidst the wheat, the wheat is there, Ruben, Goya, Mengs, Bellini, and Corregio to name a few. And it’s right there – you can get right next to it and not have to defend your position or feel guilty for blocking the view .

Another Francisco de Zurbarán trussed ram, this one with a halo.

This just tickled me. ‘Skeleton, party of four’. Hey Kids, let’s go visit the land of the living. Dia de los Muertos day at Disney World.

Detailed miniature scenes, made of white wax in encased in glass, elaborately framed.

Goya’s last palette is there, framed in a  golden laurel wreath. Very nice.

An unintentionally hilarious artist moment. There this painting of a volcano erupting and people fleeing for their lives, except –over on the left-hand side, the artist calmly recording the scene for posterity. Oh, really?

So much more. I started taking photos of the sleeves in the portraits of exalted military men and they are a feast, a gilt and silver embroidery, velvet nap, armor, fur, and lace still life. Just luscious.  It makes me crave a pile of brocades and embroidered fabric, lace and oil paint.

My WTF moment. I looked down and saw this: wands and the cast of a hand in a glass case. At first, I thought – Voldemort!

A famous conductor and his batons? Nearby was Segovia’s guitar, so maybe.

Onto adventures in dining.  It is possible to have a modern, ie unrecognizable, plate of food that is never the less delicious? Yes. The food at Trapo was A+, the décor a little chilly and the ambiance was lonely. The large, L-shaped room was empty. Just me at my table, and off in the distance a family with a baby. A baby that that ramped up from fussing to shrieking for a good quarter of an hour

But I was there for the food.  Great bread in a cloth sack, salad on a piece of paper I slid on the provided tin plate – just like the county jail.

Artichokes under a sort of rice paper caul, but delicious. Didn’t get a photo because I fell on them like the starved for vegetables person I’ve become.

Main course , spring roll with buttered, toasted crumbs. The finale, spice cake with banana ice cream and caramel sauce.It was all tasty, but in the best food in Madrid category, points to Álbora. The lack of other people was disconcerting. Though, hey, I had a private chef.

Sunday, April 12:  I was indisposed and stayed in the apartment most of the day, reading and napping. Enforced rest, which I needed anyway, so on balance, not a bad thing.