Kiwi flies again...: Art in Madrid...

Top of my list of things to do in Madrid was to visit the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza art galleries. I had three full days in Madrid and for part of each day I took on another gallery. 'Took on' literally because these galleries are huge. In Barcelona I added to my understanding of Gaudi, Picasso and Joan Miro. Now, the Prado and the Thyssen have opened up new understandings of Velazquez, Goya and El Greco. I want to go home and do more reading as a result.

All the gallery visits in Holland and Spain have confirmed my preferences. I love the best work from the thirteenth century up until about the early 1600s. Then painting tends to become too ornate, florid and massive for my tastes - so I speed up in galleries. I slow down again in the late 1800s - impressionists, post-impressionists, early modern work. Always in a gallery there are one or two paintings that I return to and don't want to leave.

One of the things I noticed in this visit, probably because I was exposed to such a lot of art in a very concentrated way, was the development over time of individual artists but also the resonances between artists. A theme or motif from one artist will be picked up, consciously or unconsciously, by another. And of course in every period there are shared styles and themes, accepted ways of communicating. The standout artists are the ones who break the conventions, expand the horizons of art.

The queues for the major galleries are huge - which is a good sign I guess. Mostly the big galleries soak up the numbers as people disperse throughout. The biggest problem is tour groups which are shuffled from one masterpiece to another. The other problem is photography. It was worst in the Rijksmuseum where everyone was taking photos of paintings and using flashes. It's like a contagion. One person takes photos, others feel they can or should be doing similarly. I would prefer no photos at all, period.

Having said that I took a few in the Thyssen (photos permitted, no flash) despite feeling bad about doing so!! I am very fond of late medieval and early Renaissance portraiture. And in the Thyssen I noticed in particular how beautiful the frames were (mostly cut off in the photos).