2h Private visit to the National Art Museum MNAC with tickets

Fantastic and fascinating museum

The National Art Museum of Catalonia finds itself in an amazing building lying on a hill in the city of Barcelona, to wit the Palau Nacional de Montjuic. The building is a huge Italian classicist style palace whose construction was completed in 1929 under the architects Eugenio Cendoya and Enric Catà's design. In the very center of the building above the main entrance there is a large dome which reminds that of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The inner part of that dome, once inside the building is also very impressive. On each side end there is a smaller one in the same style and between these and the larger one there are four towers calling up those of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. I visited that Museum on June 5th 2022. This wasn't however my first visit there. There is such a great deal of high quality artworks in that Museum that one can hardly see them all in one day. That's why two or even more visits are required in order to have an accurate idea of the precious items to be contemplated in that gallery. On that day there was in the Museum a temporary exhibition dedicated to Joseph Mallord William Turner. Its name was “Light is colour”. It was a journey through the artist's most atmospheric landscapes, consisting of more than one hundred paintings, watercolours, drawings and sketch books from the Tate collection. It's amazing to realise how in the works of Turner included in the exhibition the painter raised the status of the landscape painting to a sublime level through the incorporation of innovative techniques when depicting a spectacular scenery and environmental conditions. Sublime is also the power of light in which the author is interested, whose effects are called forth in his paintings. I was really enchanted at the sight of some of those contained in that exhibition showing the painter's fascination with meteorological phenomena and particularly the importance which he attached to the sun. Likewise the development of Turner's compositions is outstanding. It goes from preliminary sketches to watercolours, oil paintings and prints. On the basis of the selection of watercolours in the exhibition it can be gathered with fascination how the technique was instrumental in Turner's approach and how it let him capture the intensity of the nature forces with an unparalleled expressive accuracy. It's amazing to realise how Turner often intertwined past events or mythological tales in the landscapes he painted. This is quite evident in his work “The Devil's Bridge ans Schöllenen Gorge”, where he depicts a rebuilt bridge which originally had been destroyed in a battle between French and Russian troops to represent the battle scene adding imagined depictions of small soldiers among other things. In other Turner's pictures on landscapes, particularly waercolours, one can observe how he captures the atmosphere. This is obvious in “Les Contamines, Dawn: Looking towards St. Gervais and Mont Blanc”, depicting an early morning sunrise before a long day's trek. In this work, as well as in other watercolours, It's dazzling to see how in this work, as well as in other watercolour ones the artist intends to describe man as small and insignificant compared to the magnificence of nature. Some other works put forward how humanity has affected the landscape and spoiled nature. In this sense, Turner's relevant works reflect steam, smoke and pollution deriving from industrialisation. A clear example of such a denunciation is the watercolour “A Jetty with a Steamer at Sea in the Distance”. Taking his critical eye on nature destruction through human activity into account, one can imagine how his paintings would be nowadays, an anthropocene epoch where the catastrophes due to the accelerated global warming on account of that activity are extremely frequent. As aforesaid, light is of the essence in most of Turner's paintings. As a matter of fact, one can realise that in these works light helps to shape and produce the colours which determine how nature and our surroundings are perceived. As it stands out from the exhibits concerned, Turner mastered the effects of light and managed to attain a perfect luminosity both in his watercolours and oil paintings. Likewise, one could perceive in that exhibition how Turner conceived light and darkness alike insofar as he demonstrates with his technique, their respective values are the same in both art and nature. On the other hand the already mentioned prominent position which the painter assigned to the sun is beyond any doubt in some oil paintings comprised in the exhibition in question. The selection of works integrating that exhibition was indeed the optimal one to learn on the excellent qualities of Turner's oeuvre. The visit to it was thus highly informative and exciting. Once the visit to Turner's works was over I decided to go to the rooms housing the gothic and baroque works included in the permanent exhibition inasmuch as on my previous visit to the Museum, apart from the Romanesque section, I just had time to see a part of the artworks appertaining to the first category. The works concerned are really stunning. Among the marvels which can be watched there, the “Descent from the Cross” by Mauro Natale and Frederic Elsig, and the altarpiece of St. Michael and St. Peter are of a dazzling beauty. Others depict some images of a great tenderness and full of emotional depth, such as the “Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John” by Joan de Borgonya, and the “Epifania” by Fernando Gallego. Well examining them one clearly realises the importance that the Mother of God assumed in the religious art in the wake of the Council of Trent. On the other hand, it stems from some of the baroque works that the Counter-Reformation made the figure of the saint outstanding, and heightened it to the level of an important mediator between man and God. Besides, within the baroque section in that Museum one can admire fantastic masterpieces by famous Spanish painters of the relevant period, such as El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera and Zurbarán. One may get dazzled, for instance, with splendid works, such as “The Annunciation” or “Christ carrying the Cross” by the first of the mentioned masters of painting; “St. Paul” by Velázquez; “Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew” by Ribera, or “St. Francis of Assisi according to Pope Nicholas V's vision” by Zurbarán. These are just a few examples of the jewels exhibited in that Museum. In addition to that, valuable masterpieces by artists of other nationalities – among them, Tintoretto, Tizziano, Rubens, Lucas Cranach, Fragonard, etc. – may likewise be admired there and no doubt they certainly cause the delight of all art lovers. Therefore, the Museum concerned is a major point in Barcelona whose visit is a must for the ones having some artistic sensitiveness while staying in the mentioned city. Both the architectural qualities of the building and the treasures housed therein make that place one of the most interesting and attractive in the whole locality.

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