The Old Woman Cooking Eggs was painted by Diego Velázquez during his Seville period possibly in 1618, and like in much of his work early poor and working class characters are portrayed.
Like other early works by the artist, it shows the influence of chiaroscuro, with a strong light source coming in from the left, illuminating the women, her utensils and the poaching eggs but throwing the background and the boy standing to her right into deep shadow. Wikipedia
A 3D exploration of Picasso’s Guernica. A beautiful piece of work of computer design by Lena Gieseke.
My primary intention for the project was to create a provoking and deep contemplation of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. Is my model a true reconstruction of the Picasso’s painting, or is it merely a rough re-visualization? Is it still Picasso’s art or has it, through my addition of third dimension, become something completely different? It is not my place to answer those questions nor to determine the relationship between my three-dimensional reproduction and the original painting. Perhaps this is a question best left in the hands of critics. More here
Barcelona’s Caixaforum is hosting a new exhibition on Catalan landscape artist and modernist Joaquim Mir (1873-1940). He began his painting career with a group of artists (the so-called Colla del Safrà) who would head for the outskirts of Barcelona to paint in the open air. He then spent some time painting the wild cliffs on of northern Mallorca where he was said to have “gone crazy in a delirium of fusion with nature”. In later years he studied the Costa Brava and Montserrat. His work is full of light and colour, and depicts shadowy forests, black roofs and rugged terrain. He is considered one of the greatest Spanish landscape artists.
The Rock in the Pond
The MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) website describes Mir thus:
Joaquim Mir, one of the most advanced, intuitive and personal leading figures of the second generation of Modernista painters, can be considered the most gifted landscape painter of his generation and perhaps even the best representative of modern Catalan painting. After having trained in landscape Realism, in 1899 Mir moved to Majorca, where he began to explore his own personal vision of landscape. His works of this period reflect the exaltation of unrestrained Nature, unreal almost, brimming with bold ranges of colour. Following a fall (fortuitous or otherwise) from a cliff in Majorca, Mir was admitted to the psychiatric hospital in Reus. In 1906 he settled in the Camp de Tarragona region, where he remained until 1910, and painted a series of extraordinary landscapes that crown the phase of work he had commenced in Majorca. In short, colour is the key element in this painter’s artistic language, which virtually verges on abstraction. MNAC
Joaquín Mir i Trenxet: La encina y la vaca /The holm oak and the cow (1915)
Words and concepts in Spanish that don't exist in English Here are a few words and expressions in Castilian Spanish that don’t exist in English, and perhaps could be borrowed. Foreigners speakers of Spanish in Spain certainly use so of them with alarming frequency with other English speakers in Spain, as do our Spanish friends and spouses. The list does not include food terms (covered elsewhere on iberianature) and most cultural terms (architectural, historical, bullfighting terms, etc)
In some cases, a simple word doesn’t exist in English (tuerto – one-eyed man) while in others the whole concept doesn’t exist (consuegros – a child’s spouse’s parents)
More to come
compaginar: slot together” or “integrate timetables
consuegros – child’s spouse’s parents
El de la verguenza – that last tasty morsel (e.g. a biscuit) which everybody feels embarrassed about taking. I suggest from now on calling this the shameful one in English, as members of my family now do.
enchufe – beyond the simple dictionary definition of plug, enchufe means a connection, knowing somebody, being well connected, knowing the right people, that sort of thing when you want something done. So, if you have an enchufe, it might very well make it easier to get a job.
estrenar – to try out something for the first time, often in the sense of wear estrenar zapatos. A football team might also estrenar un nuevo estadio An estreno is the first night of a film.
gestor – a kind of financial administrator, not quite an accountant, not quite a solicitor.
One word that you will hear a lot in Spain is gestor. The position is difficult to describe, simply because this agency does not exist in many countries. His main role is the interface between the public – in this case you – and the public administration. Generally, in UK you do not need any kind of interface, and when you do, it is clear that you should see a solicitor. In some other countries there will also be some person, or official in this kind of position. From here (continue reading)
homologar – compare and equate standards of
lampiño – without a beard or with little hair. Note, also inberbe, a beardless youth.
lustro – five years
manco – one-armed man
mimoso – as an adjective somebody who loves to be pampered/made a fuss of. Also a noun.
monte – in the sense of wild land (as opposed to just hill) monte does not exist in British English but equates to the Southern African English bush and the Australian outback. Echarse al monte means to take to the hills, and by extension, los del monte, the maquis fighters.
morbo – a dark fascination
muda – change of underwear
palomina: pigeon guano
En la localidad de Oliete (Teruel, España) se recogía la palomina que se acumulaba en la sima de San Pedro, lugar donde crían palomas. Existía una plataforma con torno en el borde de la sima para descender a los que recogían la palomina y luego elevarlos con la carga. Wikipedia
recogerse – to go indoors in the evening
resol – Reflected sunshine off the wall, floor, etc. that some Spaniards try to avoid in summer… as in, “We can’t sit at that table” (at a terrazza) “it’s got a parasol, but there’s a lot of resol” (Michael)
sobremesa – the time spent after lunch sitting round the table and talking
tertulia – a learned discussion, often as a regular event in a bar
tuerto – one-eyed man
zurdo – left-hander
Under debate: cursi, hortero, normalización lingüística, traspaso
Thanks to contributions from Glennie, Francis, Lucy, Michael, Lisa Howe, Patrick and Mónica.
More to come
Women do most of care work in Spain In spite of significant advances of recent decades, women are still the main caregivers for the elderly in 80 percent of the cases, according to a study by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). More here
Mojácar used to be a town of around 6,000 people in as far back as 1870. It maintained this number of inhabitants until round about 1900 when, slowly, numbers began to fall, speeding its descent in the 1930s. Through the various local vicissitudes of the drop in the local water-table, the end of the de-forestation, a peculiar plague of locusts in 1901, the end of the mines in the 1920s and the troubled times of the Civil War, the area in general eventually became depopulated with mass emigrations to Barcelona, Algeria, Germany and even Argentina, and Mojácar itself began its long descent into what was, by 1960, a moribund village of just 600 souls. Read complete post on Spanish Shilling
Paddy Woodworth on the Basque Country
Paddy Woodworth is an Irish reporter who has lived and worked in the Basque Country. His book The Basque Country: a cultural history, was described by the Irish Times as a terrific modern introduction to the Basque Country… succeeds in showing us the complexities of the Basque struggle for identity”
Here’s an the introduction from his book from his website.
“The Basque Country has had more than its fair share of stereotypes thrust upon it. The Basques have sometimes resisted this typecasting, but they have not been shy about making their own contributions, some as extravagant as any foreigner’s, to stock images of their homeland.
More...
Tomato trek I thought this cartoon strip was amusing. “Since a tomato leaves its branch of the plant in one of the hundreds of greenhouses from Almeria, until a consumer in Madrid take it into its meal, the price “grows” by 500% respect to the price given to the farmer”.
Spain has decided to reopen the Altamira cave complex in Cantabria after eight years being closed to visitors, despite scientists warnings’ that heat from human visitors damages the art. Visits are to resume next year on a restricted basis. The main chamber at Altamira features 21 bisons painted in ochre, red and black, which seem […]
George Orwell fought during the Spanish Civil War in the Sierra de Alcubierre in the Monegros on the Aragonese Front, during the freezing winter of 1937 (above photo by batiskafo on Flickr). He famously described his experiences in Homage to Catalonia. Unlike the diaries he wrote in the very late 1930s and 40s, which have […]
• Application rejected first in 1999 and most recently 2007• Victories in court of arbitration for sport paved way for moveGibraltar has become Uefa's 54th member nation after the European ruling body voted for its inclusion at its congress in London.There had been opposition from Spain but the Gibraltar FA won a case at the court of arbitration for spo […]
Newly released documents reveal secret services paid out fortune in bid to stop Franco joining war on Hitler's sideMI6 spent the present-day equivalent of more than $200m bribing senior Spanish military officers, ship owners and other agents to keep Spain out of the second world war, files released today disclose.More and more money was delivered, mainl […]
Orange grove (Mallorca)
I enjoyed this potted history of Mojácar:
Paddy Woodworth i
