The Prado in Brisbane

When you aren't travelling to exotic places, its good to be able to see those places from your home town. The 'Portrait of Spain (Masterpieces from the Prado is here. You walk into the exhibition and are confronted by a giant mural of the Prado gallery, which changes perspective as you move, it was amazing but my eyes were hurting just looking at it. Wished they had a photo for sale but none. The paintings opened my eyes on Spanish Royalty in the past centuries, so inbred they had mal-occlusion of the jaw and serious eye problems. They didn't want anyone more beautiful than themselves around them, so kept dwarfs and others for their pleasure. That turned me off a lot of the painting showing these types of people dressed up in fancy refinery. The photo above was full length and the detail on the dress was amazing. That said, there were lots of very interesting landscapes, religious paintings (one painting of baby Jesus has him with a long second toe and other saints had a second long toe as well) still life and mythology.

One of my favourites, The Goddess Fioro c 1697. Such a lighthearted change from the Religious saints

You will need to see the Pottery Vendor by de Goya (1778) for yourself to appreciate the detail of the two ladies buying from a seller with an old lady sitting there. In the carriage is some noble lady. Loved the servant in white on the back of the carriage.

This was another favourite "still life with chocolate service" by Luis Metendez 1770. Perhaps I should have gone to the Sala cafe after the exhibit to have a hot chocolate drink. Don't think they would have served it in a cup like this one.

This painting of grapes from 1630 is beautiful, but a different one where the grapes look like glass was not available in a post card. Like all exhibits they never really have for sale the pictures you really like, I could have bought the book but just settled on some postcards to remind me what I have seen. If you get the chance, go to see it rather than relying on my amateur photography of my postcards.