MNAC

The museum to which we have returned most often is MNAC - The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. On my most recent visit I finally took a camera.

MNAC's primary draw is its collection of Romanesque works - fresco murals, altar frontals, and wooden sculpture- from the late 11th to 13th century. It often is described as the best such collection in the world. Most come from tiny Romenesque churches in the Catalan Pyrenees, many in small hamlets.

The frescoes were removed from the churches between 1919 and 1923 to preserve them for the national museum after those of one Catalan church were removed and sent to Boston (where it remains on exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts).

MNAC has installed the murals in replicas of the apses, niches, or pillars and naves from which they came, giving a sense both of how they looked in the churches, and of extraordinary level and quality of decoration of these tiny churches. This installation shows murals not only on the apse, but also on pillars and slide aisles of the nave.
This one, of murals from a side apse of Pedret dating from 1190-1230, shows how even small spaces were decorated.
The figures in the murals are simple and strongly colored. I find them directly and intensely engaging, in part because, as Robert Hughes notes, many of the figures stare directly, almost confrontationally, at the viewer. Many murals also are filled with fantastic creatures the artists created as they converted the words of scripture into images.

The Pantocrator of the central apse of Sant Climent de Taul, painted in 1123.
Figures surrounding the Pantocrator.
David slaying Goliath from Sant Climent de Taul.
The apse of Aneu, painted 1090-1120, showing Seraphim with six wings covered with eyes (as mentioned in the Apocalypse of Saint John).

Equally impressive are the altar frontals and paintings. Again, the style is simple and direct, and the colors, especially reds, are strikingly vivid even after all these years.

The Frontal of La Seu d'Urgell from the mid-12th century, showing Christ and the Apostles.
The Frontal of Avia, about 1200.
Another frontal depicting, quite explicitly, the martyrdom of saints.
And this altar painting.
The collection also includes expressive carved wooden figures. This crucifixion.
These figures of the Erill la Vall Descent from the Cross, from the last half of the 12th century.
A Batillo Majesty from the mid-12th century that retains much of its polychrome coloring.
More than enough reason for repeated visits. I will want to return before we leave Barcelona.

Tour de France leaves Barcelona

Stage 7 takes the Tour from Barcelona to Andorra in the Pyrenees, the first stage of this year's Tour with serious climbs. We (both) went to see them take their route out of Barcelona up Passeig de Gracia and Gran de Gracia.

Waiting for the riders, with Pat on her perch.
















As were many others, of all ages and species.
Then here they came.
The first of this group of riders is, we think, a very serious looking Lance Armstrong.
And then, there they went, up the street.

Tour de Franca arriba a Barcelona

As the street banners have been announcing for several days, the Tour de France arrived today in Barcelona - along with the first rain in 2 months (that was not announced)!

Stage 6 of this year's Tour was from Girona to Barcelona. Entering Barcelona from the east, the route turned down Passeig de Sant Joan just below Avinguda Diagonal, passed the Arc de Triomf and Parc de la Ciutadella, then turned again to pass Estacio de Franca and the harbor before going through Placa d'Espanya and up Montjuic past MNAC to finish in front of Olympic Stadium.

We followed a mixed viewing strategy. I watched them ride past the sights of Barcelona on TV, while Pat went out to see the riders rushing past and take a few pictures.
We saw the Tour finish on the Champs Elysee in Paris in 1991 and 1992, and now in Barcelona in 2009.

Visitors - Margaret & Charles, and Santa Clotilde

Margaret and Charles left yesterday after a week in Barcelona, to continue their vacation with an Italian tour - Venice, Florence, Assisi, Rome.

We began their visit to Barcelona with the usual rite of initiation. Ladies in sunglasses: Margaret and Pat at Can Robert.

Margaret and Charles taking pictures of nearby Casa de les Punxes - the house of points (although in this picture the points are behind the trees)... Puig i Caldafalch's moderniste, Flamboyant Gothic-inspired apartment building.
Margaret and Charles put together a full schedule of sightseeing in Barcelona, but a highlight of the visit was a trip outside of town.

Ana Maria and Pedro, who had driven us to the party for Ruth Davis at Tamariu on the Costa Brava, stayed with Margaret and Charles when they visited Washinton, D.C., earlier this year for Ruth's retirement ceremony and Obama's inauguration. They invited all of us to visit them at Santa Clotilde, the house Ana Maria's father built in the 1920's near Lloret de Mar on a large plot of abandoned vineyards on the coast that he had purchased. Ana Maria said people thought he was crazy to buy all that worthless land. Proof that one person's craziness is another's foresight.

The entrance to the house is grand.
An image in ceramic tile of Santa Clothilde's feats is on the tower flanking the entrance.
The house sits on a bluff that juts into the Mediterranean, overlooking rocks below and beaches to either side.
Ana Maria and Pat enjoying the view from the terrace.
We could see boys below jumping off the rocks into the sea.












This gull also seemed to enjoy the view, and the convenient perch provided.
Group portrait on the patio.

Pedro and Ana Maria added to our enjoyment and appreciation by telling us about the building of the house, and of the history they have lived through, including Pedro's memories as a boy of 7 when the Spanish Civil war began.

We had lunch at a small restaurant on one of the beaches below the house.
And then went for a swim in the Mediterranean.

Afterwards we toured the beautiful Italian-style gardens that Ana Maria's father built on the hillside below the house.
Today the the nearby town of Lloret del Mar owns the Santa Clotilde Gardens and they are open to the public.

Visitors - Rich & Barb, Liz & Trish

Rich and Barb and family recently completed a two stage visit. Rich and Barb arrived first, and after a few days in Barcelona left for a tour of Andalusia - Granada, Sevilla, and Cordoba. The day before their return Liz and Trish arrived. Liz had gone to London and then on to Amsterdam, where she was joined by Trish. All four Evanston DeCosters toured Barcelona together before returing to the U.S.

Their visit seemed to specialize in castellers, as they - at least Rich and Barb - saw them three different times.

Pat and Rich watching in the Placa Sant Jaume in front of the Ajuntament (town hall).














A large, 4 by 7 castel in front of the Ajuntament: 7 levels (counting the base), 4 people per level (except for the top 2 levels).
Another evening we walked over to Sagrada Familia and happened on a group of castellers apparently practicing in the median of nearby Avinguda Gaudi.

The last Sunday of their visit three groups of castellers appeared in our block of Passeig de Sant Joan. Rich and Liz snapped pictures while Trish watched.
These castellers produced two varieties of castels we had never seen before. One was constructed with double towers: a tower of 3 people per level connected to another with 2 persons per level. This is the top of the castell; a boy is just climbing on top of the 3-person tower and the adjoining 2-person tower is on the left.

Usually castells are built from the bottom up: first the lowest level climbs up on the base and then each higher level climbs up over the level below them; those on top climb up last.

The other unusual castell we saw began instead by having the three who would form the top of the castell climb up on the base. Then, each group of three forming an intermediate level placed themselves between the base and the top and were pushed up on top of the base; this was done for each of the three intermediate levels between the base and the top. The entire castell was pushed up from below rather than erected by climbing. Very unusual, and difficult. This is the nearly complete castell.













Avisit to Park Guell was the occasion for a portrait of father with daughters, and dragon - but can you see what is extraordinary about this picture?









There are no other people in the shot - a nearly impossible accomplishment in summer at the Park Guell dragon, made possible by visiting just as the park opened in the morning.

Rich, Barb, Liz and Trish taking in the sights at the Hospital de Sant Pau.
Well, actually, they may have been looking at a bird rather than the Domenech architecture.

They also made a visit to Montserrat to enjoy the sights, and look for birds.
The sights and hiking were good, but the birding not so much.
To recover from the rigors of touring, Trish put in some quality relaxing time on our balcony.
Of course we had to include a few good Barcelona meals. The whole group at a nearby street cafe for the Sunday mid-day meal.
And, of course, no visit to Barcelona would be complete without a visit to Can Robert.
Patricia K. DeCoster and Patricia DeCoster B, at Can Robert.