MNAC With More Of A Knack For Art

Post-Miro, we walked and rode the escalators down to the National Museum of Catalan Art, or MNAC (Musee National Art Catalan).  

The MNAC looks like a capital building of sorts, and can be seen from many vantage points in Barcelona.  We had been to it on our 4th day, but did not pay to go into the various wings.  Instead, we went up to the roof terrace and enjoyed spectacular views of the city.  This trip we realized we were supposed to pay to go up, so I suppose that makes us scofflaws.  But I scoff at that law!

Anyhow, there are five main wings – a medieval Romanesque wing, a medieval Gothic wing, a Renaissance and Baroque wing, and a Modern Art wing.  I believe by “modern art” they mean stuff other than the kind of crap we had just seen at the Joan Miro gallery, but we couldn’t take that chance you know, so instead we hit the Romanesque and then the Gothic/Renaissance/Baroque wings (need to fact that!).  And, the wings are huge!

Anyhow, to us, the art from the 11th and 12th Century was far more interesting than the modern art we were expected to swoon over in the Miro Museum.  

The Romanesque section, which we found to be the most interesting, featured a lot of art that had been rescued from crumbling churches, and displayed similar to how they appeared in the churches.  Very fascinating stuff.  

I’m going to let the photos below speak for themselves.  As much as I liked the two wings of the museum, we were pretty hungry and tired after essentially three straight museums.  It has the same soul sucking effect on me as going to a mall, although the museums are better.  Carol is the art museum aficionado of the two of us (Editor’s Note: Well, actually nobody will be surprised by that news.  Blogger: Hmm, I suppose you are right.)

Not sure if this is a wolf.  Or a dog. Or something

else.  But it's definitely something else.

Early complaint about dog breath.

Saint John the Revelator.

Brilliant color.

What's dogging him?

The flag of Catalonia.  And a bad guy.

This picture, and the next three were all part of

the same art: how to kill and dismember saints?

Dude, don't give me THAT look!

It's tempting to say this

is Adam and the snake.

Talk about your great hand-eye

coordination, this guy had it!

A couple of dragons high-fiving!