On On Holiday
Aug. 6th, 2024 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danieldwilliamI am returned from a holiday in Malaga in southern Spain.
Took a flat just on the edge of the Centro Historico.
Malaga is a nice town, about the same size as Edinburgh. Hot in the summer but not too hot. Plenty to do but not an overwhelming amount of things to do. The historic centre of the town is about a square mile of little winding alleys, almost complete pedestrianised and almost completely made up of restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. Lively but not rowdy. Full of tourists. Nice beach and promenade. A Moorish castle and fortified palace. Big cathedral. The big world class draw is the Picasso museum.
There's even a bull ring but only in use one week a year.
It's been a major port for a long long time.
Founded as a Phoenician trading port in the 8th century BC then expanded in to a proper colony by the Carthaginians under the Barcids. Seems to be some Greek and local influence along the way. Taken over by Romans in the 2nd century BC. Vandal for a bit - hence the name Andalusia. Moorish from the 8th to the 15th Centuries AD then Castillian. Looks like the Catillians sold everyone in to slavery when they took over in the 1480s so there is less Moorish influence on show than you might think.
The Picasso museum is very interesting. It does a really good job of illustrating what he was doing as an artist. Right from the very start of the gallery where it opens with two pictures side by side, one of his sister holding a doll painted when he was a teenager I think, 1900-ish?, in a very late Victorian portrait style and one of Mother and Child painted in the 60's in a full Cubist style. These are both paintings of the same thing. Have a think about what it means for a painting to be a painting of a thing. The Captain seemed to engage with it. MLW liked the later ceramics. There was also a temporary exhibition of the little known contemporary of Picasso Maria Blanchard which was fabulous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Blanchard
MLW and I went from not knowing anything of her to being big fans.
We ate well, lots of lovely restaurants. I enjoyed the local beer Victoria Malaga very much. The best dinner was probably the one in the little tapas place on our first night there that I picked because it was the closest to us. I very much enjoyed the fact that if you bought a beer or a glass of wine you got a little tapas with it.
The coolest thing was in the Museum of Malaga - a 6th century BC grave of a Greek hoplite with Egyptian jewellery and Tyrian artifacts - moved wholesale from the place it was discovered literally underneath the block of flats we were staying in when they were built 15 years ago.
The other interesting thing about that museum was its deliberate dull display of deliberately dull Spanish art from the Franco period. Franco wanted dull art and the museum shows you the dullness of the art to its full effect by sprinkling just one or two interesting pieces trough the collection
We did not do much. Walked round the castle, looked at Picasso, spent a day at the beach, went of a Segway tour of the town, did a bit of shopping, looked at interesting archaeology and dull art, sat on the roof terrace and read, watched a bit of the Olympic Games.
Took a flat just on the edge of the Centro Historico.
Malaga is a nice town, about the same size as Edinburgh. Hot in the summer but not too hot. Plenty to do but not an overwhelming amount of things to do. The historic centre of the town is about a square mile of little winding alleys, almost complete pedestrianised and almost completely made up of restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. Lively but not rowdy. Full of tourists. Nice beach and promenade. A Moorish castle and fortified palace. Big cathedral. The big world class draw is the Picasso museum.
There's even a bull ring but only in use one week a year.
It's been a major port for a long long time.
Founded as a Phoenician trading port in the 8th century BC then expanded in to a proper colony by the Carthaginians under the Barcids. Seems to be some Greek and local influence along the way. Taken over by Romans in the 2nd century BC. Vandal for a bit - hence the name Andalusia. Moorish from the 8th to the 15th Centuries AD then Castillian. Looks like the Catillians sold everyone in to slavery when they took over in the 1480s so there is less Moorish influence on show than you might think.
The Picasso museum is very interesting. It does a really good job of illustrating what he was doing as an artist. Right from the very start of the gallery where it opens with two pictures side by side, one of his sister holding a doll painted when he was a teenager I think, 1900-ish?, in a very late Victorian portrait style and one of Mother and Child painted in the 60's in a full Cubist style. These are both paintings of the same thing. Have a think about what it means for a painting to be a painting of a thing. The Captain seemed to engage with it. MLW liked the later ceramics. There was also a temporary exhibition of the little known contemporary of Picasso Maria Blanchard which was fabulous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Blanchard
MLW and I went from not knowing anything of her to being big fans.
We ate well, lots of lovely restaurants. I enjoyed the local beer Victoria Malaga very much. The best dinner was probably the one in the little tapas place on our first night there that I picked because it was the closest to us. I very much enjoyed the fact that if you bought a beer or a glass of wine you got a little tapas with it.
The coolest thing was in the Museum of Malaga - a 6th century BC grave of a Greek hoplite with Egyptian jewellery and Tyrian artifacts - moved wholesale from the place it was discovered literally underneath the block of flats we were staying in when they were built 15 years ago.
The other interesting thing about that museum was its deliberate dull display of deliberately dull Spanish art from the Franco period. Franco wanted dull art and the museum shows you the dullness of the art to its full effect by sprinkling just one or two interesting pieces trough the collection
We did not do much. Walked round the castle, looked at Picasso, spent a day at the beach, went of a Segway tour of the town, did a bit of shopping, looked at interesting archaeology and dull art, sat on the roof terrace and read, watched a bit of the Olympic Games.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-06 11:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-06 12:20 pm (UTC)He wanted to paint a picture of Spanish society (figuratively and literally) as continuing in the path it had been on in the latter half of the 19th century - prosperous bourgeoisie commissioning paintings of their wives and some conservative Catholic art. Families earnestly participating in the Spanish state and church without causing a fuss.
Secondly he didn't want anyone making anyone else think too much about anything.
And the stand out pictures, different from that attempt were two portraits of herself commissioned by a dancer who had married an Indian prince and become an Indian princess, a sculpture of a North African beggar woman and a picture of Danae interacting with a rainstorm and growing a rainbow.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-06 12:25 pm (UTC)Gotcha thank you!
no subject
Date: 2024-08-06 12:27 pm (UTC)Finding out a little more about fascist Spain and Portugal is on my list of things to do.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-06 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-06 01:41 pm (UTC)