Postcard from Oviedo, Spain: A few pieces from Museo de Bellas Artes

Above: “Saint Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins,” Pieter Claeissens, 1560

Pieter Claeissens’s painting hanging in Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias attracted my attention because of my unfamiliarity with Saint Ursula. According to legend, 11,000 handmaidens of Princess Ursula set sail with her from southern England on a journey to marry the pagan to whom her father had betrothed her. The ship was blown off course, so Ursula and her entourage decided on an extended pilgrimage to Italy first. Huns had taken over Cologne by the time they finally arrived there, and, for some reason, the Huns failed to appreciate having all those virgins in their midst and slaughtered them.

Continue reading “Postcard from Oviedo, Spain: A few pieces from Museo de Bellas Artes”

Postcard from Cordoba, Spain: Ducking into a couple of museums

“The Three Ages of the Woman,” Mateo Inurria Lainosa, 1923, Museo de Bellas Artes

The year 1835 jumpstarted the core collection of the Museum of Fine Art, or Bellas Artes, of Cordoba. Artwork held in convents was seized to establish the museum which opened in the former Hospital of Charity, operated by the Order of Saint Francis since the 15th century. Today’s collection focuses on regional artists from the 14th century to contemporary.

When the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Cordoba opened in 1867, it shared space with the Bellas Artes until 1920. After several additional moves, the current home was found in 1960 in the 16th-century Palacio de Paez de Castillejo. Recent expansions of the museum have revealed the underlying ruins of what was the largest theatre built in Roman Hispania, remnants enhancing the existing collection of Roman sculpture housed within.

 

Postcard from Sevilla, Spain: Former Convent home to Bellas Artes

The former Convent of Merced Calzada dates from the early 1600s, but since 1841 it has been open to the public as the Museo de Bellas Artes.

The fine arts museum originally preserved and showcased works from closed convents and monasteries around Seville. The collection has grown through the years and includes works by some of the most famous painters associated with the city – Murillo, Zurbaran and Leal.

Not uncharacteristically, I often found myself distracted by the tilework and the devils in the details.

As we were headed into the season of Semana Santa processions, the paintings of enormous horse-drawn floats from 18th-century Seville proved of particular interest. Although these bacchanalian-themed floats appear to be more closely associated with rowdy pre-Lenten Carnaval celebrations.