Barcelona

So for my final big trip for my art class with my professor we went to Barcelona. Which as you've probably heard, is super cool. In terms of art, this city is especially important for one big reason: Antoni Gaudí. Here's the schpele  on Guadí- he was one of the most important artists of the early modernist movement because here was a guy who's work totally embodied this notion of art for art's sake. Before Gaudí, architecture always had a very functional purpose. Sure, you have examples throughout history that have elaborate additions and such in the name of provoking meaning or what have you, but before Gaudí no one in architecture was seriously pushing the idea of constructing something simply for the sake of making something look good. His designs are unnecessary, impractical, and oftentimes contradictory, and yet in that way- he separated himself from every other architect before him and helped kick start a mentality whose repercussions are still felt today. I could continue spouting off about this but the photos will make it make more sense.

So the first stop was the park that he built. (The other thing to note about Guadí was his persistent love for nature and natural forms. In this way a park plays right into this idea.) Throughout this park there are lots of colonnades that at first glance look like these old ruins. That is of course until you actually look at them. These columns and hallways are constructed of tons of large rocks that all look like at any time they are going to fall and crush you.

Colonnade in the park

Are they about to fall?

The most well known part of the park is a large balcony area with a really spectacular view of the city that is right next to two buildings that Gaudí built that look quite a bit like gingerbread houses. The really cool thing about this balcony though is that when you go down below (where the really famous lizard fountain is) you'll see all these tons of tilting columns. which are really neat, but in true Gaudí fashion- serve absolutely no function whatsoever- if they weren't there the balcony would still be standing just fine- the only purpose they serve is to make the area look neat.

gingerbread houses

they look pretty upright but in reality these columns all have quite the lean going on

Then it was off to the Sagrada Familia, Guadí's unfinished masterpiece. One side was completed early on in his lifetime, while he was still working in his neo-gothic style, but the truly amazing part is the other side that was finished in full on Gaudí style which depicts the sacred family. Because rules and traditions seemed to be a secondary concern for Gaudí various things throughout the façade hint at his gothic roots but then reject those rules. My favorite of these things being that he created an impressive gothic style rose window in front that is massive and impressive...and then proceeded to cover it up with one of his tree-like spires.

This was Gaudí's first, neo-gothic side- notice that even early in his career he loved nature- instead of gargoyles he put serpents around the top of the building

The amazing sagrada familia side

Here's the rose window I was talking about- you can barely see it because of the spire in front of it

The following day we headed to the palacio (which in reality was never used as a palace, but was created for the world expo at the beginning of the 20th century). This palace is now used to house the National Museum of Catalunya- which is a very impressive art museum simply with it's massive permanent collection. What was really special for me though was that there was an amazing temporary exhibit that compared realism in Catalunya to Realism in France, and specifically the work of Gustave Courbet. Along with various impressive pieces by Courbet they had his SUPER important self portrait (you know, the one where he's pulling his hair back and has his eyes bulging). Needless to say- for the umpteenth time I freaked out at an art museum in Spain.

The palacio- with barcelona's little shout out to the columns at Mizzou

 We then saw the stadium from the barcelona olympics in 1992, followed by the cathedral- which was a neat, primarily gothic building that started out as a small little roman church. Then we closed out the weekend with a trip to the Picasso museum which had his early painting of his sister's communion and his series of interpretations of Las Meninas.

Joan Miró did this line of dancers that's across from the cathedral

Inside the cathedral- it was in a fire a while back and is still undergoing a lot of repairs

The small little roman beginning of the cathedral

This little bar was where Picasso used to hang out- he once traded a drawing for a meal there. And it's really close to la calle avignon- which used to be the street where prostitutes hung out- and if you thought the women of Avignon (the super famous painting by Picasso) was about the women in Avignon in France, I hate to break it to ya, but it wasn't quite that poetic...haha

This is Armando's (my professor's) favorite church in Barcelona. It was built by a guild of fisherman

So once I returned to Alicante I was waiting for the tram to take me out to San Juan where I live and a small english boy, who didn't realize I spoke english, was watching me sketch (a favorite past time of mine here). When his mom told him to stop being nosy he told her that I was making a "lovely" drawing, which kind of was the icing on the cake for this weekend. Not typically one to post photos of my work online but seeing as how it was one of the best compliments I've received for a piece I decided to post it here.

Córdoba

So after having my mind blown in Sevilla, the weekend was just beginning. We hopped on a bus to Córdoba, and I was face to face with one of the most important sites on my must-see list in Spain. In reality the first night spent in Córdoba was more getting our bearings after arrival- but it's worth noting that we went out for tapas and this was where my friend Maddie first planted the idea of trying rabo de toro (bull's tail)- mind the foreshadowing here.

The day started out with an attempt at watching the sunrise over the great mosque. Which was in fact my idea, because I could have sworn that I had read that this was quite the site to see. The unfortunate part to this was that the great mosque is deep inside the city and can't really be seen because it's not terribly tall (part of it's charm) but so yes, we made a special trip to the river, on  a hazy morning when we likely would not have been able to see much of a sunrise anyway, buuuuuut on the bright side we did get to see the roman bridge. first thing in the morning.

Roman bridge

We then headed towards the great mosque after some much needed coffee (priorities). So quick history lesson on the great mosque, because the title is a little misleading. To begin with, the site used to be a pagan temple. This was then taken over by the visigoths and converted into a church. This structure was then mostly destroyed by the Moors and in it's place, the structure was converted into a mosque. This mosque kind of epitomized the notion of a work in progress, by which I mean that for 2 centuries this was being enlarged. What's neat about this though is that you can easily see the passage of time as the new sections were being added because there is a noticeable difference between the initial horseshoe arches from beginning to end- as i'll show in pictures, the later the arch was constructed, the more bowed the arches are. But so the final piece to the puzzle is that the great mosque is actually the mosque-cathedral. Because in true christian form here in Spain, the mosque was taken over by the catholic church and converted into what is now the cathedral in Córdoba. So what that means is that among all the historic, one of a kind, polychrome, double horseshoe arches, is a very elaborate catholic church, Which, albeit very impressive, kind of clashes with the whole restrained, austere, and understated feel of the Moorish portion of the structure.

In the courtyard of the Great Mosque

Example of some of the early arches

some of the later arches

This is pretty neat because as you look further in the distance you can see the arches starting to cave in more towards themselves

If you can believe it, this is inside the great mosque: if you're thinking that I've lost my marbles or am trying to pull a fast one on you, you can see in the bottom left-hand corner the iconic polychrome red and white double arches

The incredible Mihrab of the great mosque

The rest of the weekend was spent with stops in a neat little synagog and an old little early-gothic church that were both very cool, along with my trip to the fine arts museum in Córdoba, whose permanent collection was small but had a really cool temporary collection of letters that an artist wrote to friends with sketches on them- always a fan of some neat pen-work.

inside the synagog

The inside of the little early-gothic church

And finally, this is where it all comes full circle: bull's tail. The hostel that we were staying at that weekend happened to be right across from a flamenco bar. Which, after having experienced a flamenco show in Granada, was definitely something that I was up for experiencing again especially since I didn't know when the next time I would make it to the Andalusian region would be. So armed with an extremely tasty glass of sherry (from the region) I sat down with my friends to watch another flamenco show, and low and behold, there on the menu, basically begging to be tried was rabo de toro, and seeing as how the sherry was good, the show was about to be good, and you're only young and fearless in Spain once: we ordered the Bull's Tail. And I'm more than happy to go on the record as saying that, my fellow Americans, we have been missing out. I don't know which Spaniard decided that they should try eating a bull's tail, but I must admit that it was one of the best cuts of meat I've ever had. Put it on your list of things to try if and when you come to Spain.

Sevilla

(Note: There should have been a post before this about a mini camino that I did called the Senda del Poeta, but my camera wasn't functioning that weekend so I may be stealing some pictures from my friends who did it with me in order to post about it in the future)

But never fear the awesomeness that was sevilla makes up for my not so chronological posting skills. This post and the following one, for Cordoba, were for a whirlwind weekend that I went on with some of my friends from my program.

We only spent about a day in Sevilla but it was definitely a well spent day: we started with the fine arts museum which was really special. Lot's of work by spanish artists and many of which being from the renaissance and baroque periods- always a win in my book. My friend Maddie and I successfully salivated over the majority of the works in this museum- so if you find yourself in Sevilla this would definitely be a worthwhile stop.

The other big stop for us in Sevilla kind of blew my mind. And it's because of this that I will be subjecting you, dear reader, to an art history lecture. The cathedral in Sevilla is big. And I don't mean Texas big. I mean this thing is freakin ginormous. Just how ginormous is that? let me explain: 3rd largest church in Europe- 2 centimeters smaller than the vatican, and the largest gothic structure :IN. THE. WORLD. Now for a person who fell in love with gothic architecture, this was kind of a dream come true for me. When you enter this church, through a little passageway at the entrance, you're going to feel miniscule. Now, why is that important? Well, the idea behind gothic architecture is that God is above in heaven, and the architecture is aiming to reach upwards towards the heavens as a way of creating this holy aura, like insinuating His presence through architecture. So what you're getting are enormously tall ceilings, elongated structures, and a sense of airiness in the structure of the building. So in case you were wondering, at least for me anyway, I'm of the mindset that the architect got his point across.

Upon First seeing the cathedral

Quite the welcome

just a small side altar

truly fantastic work in the arches of the main naive

The choir

Not such a great photo but this is the main altar which is truly out of this world

typically not one to take photos of paintings, but because it's Goya and it's in this amazing  gothic frame I had to put it on here

Again a very bad photo but this is the silver altar of to the side

a better shot of the really impressively tall gothic arches

There are tons of additional little rooms all over this church- look at that relief work on those two center columns!

From behind the main altar

So the other interesting things about this cathedral are that it is supposed to have the remains of Christopher Columbus. After a series of tests within the past 10 years on the remains though, they've pretty much concluded that it's not Columbus, but maybe one of his children. Any way about it- the tomb for him was awfully impressive.

The tomb of  (a) "Columbus"

The other interesting thing about this cathedral is that the tower that is attached to it gives you a very neat view of the city. And according to my professor who i talked to about my trip- who I'd like to believe, but in reality may have been pulling my leg- has a ramp to the top as opposed to a set of stairs, which he claimed was so that folks could take there horses up to the top...the jury is still out on that one.

View from the tower

Las Fallas en Valencia

So after my recon trip to Valencia where I visited the museums and cathedral, I returned the following weekend to see the end of the Fallas festival. Fallas is an annual festival that consists of large sculptures made of wood, cork, and styrofoam. They are all made by different artists, in various sizes, small, medium, and gargantuan. During the week they are displayed and judged, and then on Saturday, after the sun sets, they burn them. Yep, burn them. Now i know what you're thinking- that all seems incredibly silly- why would those spaniards work so hard to build these elaborate sculptures just to burn them? And trust me, I've had a good amount of time to think about an answer for this, and you know, the best I can come up with is that spaniards just like to burn stuff. Which I must admit, makes for quite the spectacle.

This one is actually from the previous weekend when they were constructing one of the fallas

One of the small Fallas

This is NOT a falla, but is the virgen made out of tons of flowers

All of the Fallas deal with current issues and are usually charicatures of things happening in Spain. This one however was about sex and viloence (mostly sex) in the media

This was my favorite Falla- i'm a sucker for the octopi so it was a winner in my book

it's likely that part of the reason I loved this falla so much was because it had an enormous paella being cooked right by it during the day, which made for an awesome meal that day- during which i tried my first snail- not too shabby

and then it got burned

and then it REALLY got burned

Valencia, Recon Trip

This was what welcomed me to valencia- you're never that far away from home i guess

So the weekend before Las Fallas (a festival in Valencia that i'll post about next) I went to Valencia on my own to check out the Cathedral, the fine arts museum, the contemporary museum, and the arts and science center. The low down on Valencia is that the cathedral is really amazing- kind of a hodge podge of all sorts of different time periods, but has a really impressive baroque facade, an impressive altar- and my favorite part: a cupola with the 4 evangelists in the corners (I have a guilty pleasure associated with finding depictions of the evangelists and subjecting unsuspecting friends to a little lesson in symbolism).

Cathedral in Valencia

Alright let's not beat around the bush...mummified arm of a saint...a little strange

The Altar

One example of the evangelists- hello Luke with the Ox

The view from the tower of the cathedral

The Fine arts Museum was good but not fantastic. They had an impressive collection of gothic altarpieces- which I like but it's not really my favorite time period for painting. The two standouts in the museum was a self portrait of velasquez (it's the one that you almost always see associated with him- so that was neat) and then a really impressive Ribera piece that gave me goosebumps.

El Museo de Bellas Artes

The Contemporary Museum on the other hand was out of this world. They only had temporary exhibits up, but I give a standing ovation to the museum director for having that many impressive shows under one roof. To begin with there was a Jasper Johns works on paper exhibit, which was neat- primarily later work so not exactly his most notable stuff, but I give props to anyone who loves what they do enough that even after changing the art world completely- still has the urge to continue creating. Then there was a really neat Exhibit for Chilean artist Roberto Matta- who's work I was not previously familiar with, but his work really blew me away at this show. Then the last exhibit was a collection sculptures by Degas- which included the bather AND the 14 year old dancer! Really extremely cool all around.

Random lookout tower

This Civil Building was initially used as the Market- check out the palm tree columns!

Home sweet Hostel

 Then Saturday before my train I went and saw the Science museum at the Arts and Science city- which was pretty darn cool (see, just because it's not an art museum doesn't mean that I can't appreciate a museum). There was also a Concert happening that night with My Chemical Romance headlining, which I didn't stick around for, which angered the angsty teenage alejo, but the 21 year old was content to head back to the calmness of the beach in Alicante (man i'm getting old). haha

The Science center- dreary day- i should note that it rained almost all weekend

My Chemical Romance concert that happened that night at the Science Center