Murillo, Velazquez, Zurbaran in Prado Museum

So I had he opportunity to visit the Prado Museum while in Madrid...for art lovers it is heaven...but go on Sundays because the museum is free. Fore warning the museum you will avoid. Anyways we had a small scavenger hunt while inside the museum to find famous Sevillian painters...what a mission but at least the sceneary was nice. After some small setbacks with reading the map incorrectly I found Bartolome Murillo, Diego Velazquez, and Francisco Zurbaran.

El Sueño del Patricio and El Patricio revela su sueño al Papa
Bartolomé E. Murillo

I enjoyed this pair of paintings by Murillo because of the story explaining his creative conception of them. The story goes that the first painting (El Sueño del Patricio) depecits the Virgin Mary coming to Patricio and his wife in a dream to explain her wish to build a church on a hill. The second painting (El Patricio revela su sueño al Papa) shows Patricio going to the Pope to tell him about his dream with the Virgin Mary. The following background story is that the Pope goes to the hill that Patricio describes, and although the time is summer, snow is on the ground outlining the foundation of the church. This is the legend behind the Church de Santa Maria La Blanca, and the church in which both of these paintings hung. Cool little side note, these paintings were stolen in the 19th Century and brought to France where the gold arches were added to make the paintings more neo classical, 3 years later their were returned to Spain, but the damage was already done.

Las Meninas
Diego Velázquez

Las Meninas is a famous painting, just walk into any El Corte Inglés in Spain and you will see an advertisment copy of this painting. But that's not what caught my attention, I chose to focus on this painting by Velázquez because he is basically tooting his own horn in this picture. The painting is Velázquez personal opinion about his stature in Spanish society. The painting focuses on Infanta Margarita (a princess) and her maids tending to her. To her right is actually Velázquez painting, he is actually painting her parents King Phillip IV and Queen Mariana of Austria...but the untrained eye would miss this aspect of the painting since the King and Queen are only noticable in the background. Look at the reflection in the mirror hanging in the background behind Infanta Margarita. Anyways this is a scene going on in the Alcazar palace, and Velázquez has painted himself in the mix to show his status as a painter. He depicts himself as a personal friend of the royal family and not as a hired artist. But the main aspect of arrogance is the red cross on Velázquez's chest...it is actually a symbol of the King's court. As stated historically Velázquez was not awarded this high ranking status symbol until 1658 which was 2 years after the painting was finished and issued into circulation. This seems like an act of arrogance that Velázquez painted this work to communicate to the Spanish community his personal view of his societal status...in a sense kind of trash talking with his paintbrush.

Hercules Matando la Hidra De Lerna
Francisco Zurbaran

I enjoyed Zurbaran's depictions of Hercules because of my love for Greek Mythology. "Hercules Matando la Hidra De Lerna" depicts the Greek Myth of Hercules' second task of his 12 labours. He had to kill the Hydra of Lerna to move onto his next task. The 9 headed, serpant like, fire breathing beast put up a tiring fight before succoming to Hercules. Zurbaran depicts this scene down to the T...he even includes Iolaus, Hercules' nephew who helps him strategize to defeat the Hydra. Cool tip: look very closely and see if you can find the scorpian which is attacking Hercules.