El Palacio Real

We had a Goya day today at the Prado. It was incredible--truly the more I learn about him the more I love his work. Progressing from light, tapestry designs to dark satirical works depiciting his views of society, Goya maintained good enough relations with the court, aristocracy, and church to be employed throughout and retain his influence throughout a civil war and an affair with the wife of a wealthy aristocrat. I love his piece about the dog, and how it represents pathos and fidelity. Also the raw beauty and penetrating gaze of his Naked Maja, the electrifying tension in the piece of the cat fight, and the tragedy and raw human desperation in The Execution of the 3rd of May. I can't believe six of his seven children died!

After the museum I sat on a hill and ate the lunch I packed on a grassy hill listening to a street Spanish-guitar player, really feeling and absorbing and loving that moment and my life.

This afternoon we visited the Palacio Real, the Royal Palace. It is no longer the dwelling of the Royal family, but it is used for international conferences, meetings, and banquets. We saw the room where the first Israeli-Palestinian peace conference was held, with Clinton, and Spain signed into the European Union. Each room was for a single person for a single purpose. Example: the King's dressing room where he was publicly dressed and undressed for two hours. And the King's private dressing room. Ridiculous.

Charles the III was one of Spain's greatest King's, according to our guide. He looks noble, in his portraits. His son, Charles the IV, was less commendable. His wife basically held most the power, along with her lover Godoy, who was elected Prime Minister. But Charles IV's son, Ferdinand, collected clocks which now adorn the Royal palace, each a work of art. There are some 400 clocks in the palace and that's not even all of them. One had a thousand of diamonds inlayed all over the face of it making up the numbers! Another was a globe that opened to reveal a mechanized, moving solar system.