"Art Enables Us To Find Ourselves And Lose Ourselves At The Same Time." Thomas Merton

"Bad art enables us to want to lose it and leave the art gallery at the same time."  Glen Bolger

Ah, this post is photos of good art.  I'm not going to take photos of bad art and punish my faithful (and even occasional) readers with it.

Editor: And what's your definition of bad art.  Writer: It was anything I don't like, but now, after reading that Thomas Merton quote, it's any art that doesn't enable me to find myself and lose myself at the same time.  Editor: Okay, your latter definition is at least more philosophical than your former definition.

Part of the Station of the North,

the Madrid train station that

serves the north.

Dome of the Church of

Theresa and San Jose,

taken from afar.

Tapestries weave tales of

bravery and derring-do.

He's got the whole world

in his hands, he's got the

whole world. . .

There should be more artistic depictions

of the loading of Noah's Ark.  Every one

I've seen in Europe is incredible.

But then again, I like animals.

Even I could immediately

see this is an El Greco.

"The Adoration of the

Name of Jesus"

And here's a close-up of the lower half,

which is among the most El Greco of

all El Grecos.  This was painted in the

late 1570s.  I did think the bottom

right, a hellmouth, was a nod to

Hiernoymus Bosch, and surprisingly,

I turned out to be right!

There are plenty of cool things

on the First Floor, but there's nothing

cooler than an El Greco with a touch

of Bosch in it! 

This lion looks more scared

than any lion I've seen.

Salome with the head of John the Baptist

by Caravaggio, Madrid edition.  Another

painting by him of the same name is

in the National Gallery of Art in London.

It's less colorful and more crowded

than the Madrid painting. 

The archangel St. Michael

slaying a demon.  Remember,

St. George has no wings and

slays dragons.  Sometimes St.

Michael is shown slaying

dragons who are actually

demons.  There will be a test.

A royal carriage from back in the day.

Part of the Royal Palace.  We've taken the

tour twice before, but it's just too much.

I'm not much for anarchy or socialism, but

when I go through palaces like this one or

Versailles, it pretty much sickens me.