VIVA ESPANYA

Free Museum Day! It brings joy to my heart.  This time, I ventured into the palacial home of the Museu Nacional d'Arte Catalan, fondly referred to as MNAC (em-nack).

MNAC is yet another symbol of Catalan pride, and holds only art by Catalan artists, collections of art from nearby regions that demonstrate techniques form Catalunya, or collections from really wealth people hereabouts.  The definition of "Catalan" artist can also be stretched to include people who spent a few years here, in a few cases.

Anyway, the museum sits by Plaza Espanya, behind the gigantic fountain that hosts the Magic Fountain show on weekends.  From the top of all those stairs, it therefore has a really pretty view out over the city.

And if you want to enjoy your view and eat (food) too, there are plenty of little vendors on the top plaza selling hot beverages and hearty sandwiches (baguette-style), as well as lots of places to slump down and relax.  You made it all the way to the (centrally-located) museum! That deserves a reward!

 Because it was free museum day, the entrance was free BUT the audioguide was not.  I'd been prepared to shell out several euros, since I'm an audioguide addict, but was pleasantly surprised that the student discount made the audioguide a mere 30 cents.  It almost didn't merit digging through my bag for my wallet. (Note: for all you older folk past your schooling years, the regular price for the audioguide is three or four euros)

Once inside, I decided to see the exhibits in chronological order.  The first exhibit took me back to the 10th-12th centuries and displayed MNAC's pride and joy: its painted mural collection.  These murals were literally stripped off the walls of little chapels throughout the mountains of Catalunya (including many chapels in the Pyrenees) using a complicated technique and organic solvents.  I found the video describing all this fascinating, but nobody else seemed to stay for the whole thing.  From there, I proceeded through all of the exhibits at a steadily increasing velocity.

I will warn you that what now follows would be properly titled Jess' Completely Irreverant Guide to Catalan Art.  Since the MNAC is too huge (the audioguide numbers blast off into the 600s), it's impossible to show you all of the photos that I took.  Let's begin

One of the famous murals depicting the stoning of St. Stephen.  If you see the beam coming down from the upper right corner, it's coming from a hand (in the pew!pew! pretend gun position) and is shooting a beam at the Saint.  This is described by the audioguide as being "consoled" by the hand of God.  It looked to me more like a laser pointer forsaking him, telling his attackers "THIS ONE!"  Or, you know, the laser beam that assassins use.

This is a Coptic fabric, a type of art from Egyptian culture in the roman period that used fabrics in religious iconography.  This one was labeled "quadruped" and was my favorite.

I'm sorry, but the facial expressions in this crack me up.

Did you know that all saints are visited by the creature from the Alien movies and draped in Catalan flag blankets?

 I was also astounded by the incredible brutality in a lot of the paintings.  This is best demonstrated by these four panels from the same painting:

 And then there were other curiosities, like this man barfing a sheep (this interpretation was seconded by the audioguide.  I swear)

 And the slightly immodest depiction of Mary and her baby.  Proportions seemed to be an issue in certain early art, as with Mary's breast protruding from her collarbone here.

These guys are supposed to be anguished at the death of Mary.  Their facial expressions are awesome, but I'm not sure that it has to be anguish.

 How can you not love this guy's outfit?

Pierre-Louis Laideguive by Maurice Quentin de la Tour

 This one is called the Immaculate Conception and is another MNAC Prized Possession.  Francisco de Zurbaran painted this, and he was quite the tricky guy.  Notice that Mary is not only looking timid and innocent ("who, me?") while flying through the sky, she's also standing on baby heads AND if you look at the clouds around her head carefully, you'll realize that they're actually rows upon rows of baby heads.

 This one, Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew by Josep de Ribera, is just incredible.  The lighting, the detail, everything was spot on.  Try to ignore the fact that the skin on his right arm is being peeled off, though.  That bit will throw you once you notice it.

 This still-life by Luis Melendez perfectly summarizes the everyday life of Barcelona natives: lots of good bread, copious amounts of regional wine, and lots of fresh fruit.

Natura morta amb pomes, raim, melons, pa, gerra i ampolla by Luis Egidio Melendez

 And we already know how I feel about Spanish guitar (players)...

El guitarrista by Simo Gomez

 This one also just made me laugh

 Retrar del pintor Joaquim Vayreda by Antoni Caba

 One of the perks of the more modern art section was the use of familiar scenes from around Barcelona.  One example was this painting of the Boqueria market at the turn of the 20th century

El pla de la Boqueria by Achille Battistuzzi

 The next two are famous pieces by Ramon Casas, both of which (if I'm not mistaken) appear in the artwork around El Quatre Gats, the famous restaurant that I visited in early June that was frequented by Picasso and his rowdy crew of artists.  Oh, and by Gaudi.  No big deal.

Ramon Casas i Pere Romeu en un automobil

Ramon Casas i Pere Romeu en un tandem

This painting is of Montseny, the mountain that I climbed with the cardiovascular department members after my first week of work!

Muntanyes des del Montseny.  Dia sere al mati by Maria Pidelaserra

 This one is of the pond at the labyrinth garden, which is a beautiful, beautiful place.

El Laberint (Horta, Barcelona) by Joaquim Mir

 And this one was one of my favorites.  I almost walked past a little room of mostly photography, but then I saw it and stopped in my tracks.  Could it be?  It could.  It was my sunrise beach run, in a nutshell.  Or a frame.

Port de Barcelona by Eliseu Meifren

From another angle

 The requisite Picasso... to make MNAC feel special

Dona amb barret i coll de pell (Marie-Therese Walter) by Pablo Picasso

 But by this time I was tired.  I think I looked like these:

 And I certainly felt like this...

 And if Spain won the EuroCup final, the next day was going to start something like this...

  So I decided to wrap up my adventure through the MNAC collection.  The building itself is beautiful and worth a quick stroll around.

From the second floor balcony overlooking a huge open stadium-like room.

And with that, museum day was over for me.  I ventured out into the tempest, which was abating

 And stumbled upon Pride Central!

 Barcelona Pride activities are going on this weekend, including the Pride Parade, which ends here at Plaza Espanya.

 Nothing seemed to be happening yet, but I did get these awesome bobbly ear things!

You probably can't tell, but I'm wearing my bobbly ears with Pride (see what I did there?)

 But, the best part of the day had yet to come.  It was EuroCup 2012 Final time!  We staked out a booth at a bar an hour early (and still grabbed the last one) and prepared to watch some serious soccer.

The opening ceremonies.  All those little colorful dots (except the blue ones)? People.

Other favorite part of the pre-game coverage? Watching the Italian goalie tame his flowing locks with a huge number of bobby pins.

 The bar was PACKED.  And everyone went wild as Spain quickly took the lead with a goal-by-header by Silva 13 minutes into the game.

From then on, Spain commanded the game.  Another incredible goal by Alba at 41 minutes to round out the first half, and then Spain just slowly reeled in their victory for the whole second half (scoring two more goals near the end).
The bar vibrated with shouts and with the raucous singing of Ole, Ole Ole Ole and similar songs.  Then we all rushed out into the street.
While revelry is all fun and good, it requires lots of energy.  We got some gelato to add a little bit of Italy to our night.  It tasted like sweet victory.

Our faithful gelato scooper man, who indulges my obsession with the Biscotto flavor.

 As with MNAC, this is a journey told in pictures

The crowded streets

So much excitement

Half naked men on stoplights!

People climbing atop information booths

Excitement!

Spain gear EVERYWHERE

Deciding to climb atop the information booth, too.

Victory!

Mob mentality

More crazies

Getting into the Spanish spirit

I have no idea who the guy in the mask was, but he was super game.  And The other guy just crashed the photo. (And I'm too lazy to crop him out)

Since the Metro closes at midnight on Sunday and, well, that was just when the street party was starting, Naaman and I ended the night with a beautiful walk home.  Cars skidded down streets, complete with honking horns and flags fluttering out the window.  People were getting naked in the Plaza Catalunya fountain.  Passeig de Gracia was mostly empty (too much couture, not enough bars to supply critical mass), but everyone you met was in a festive mood.

I read an article about a month ago about how winning the EuroCup would boost Spain's economy (based on an analysis of post-World Cup win effects).  If it can bring economic stimulus on top of all the joy I witnessed, soccer is more than a religion.  It's a miracle.

Spotted: Senior citizen tai chi in the park with the canes!

But seriously, there were about eight groups of middle aged to senior citizens doing different types of tai chi, some of them using their canes as props.  Precious.