MADRID AND THE PRADO: Art and Architecture

The actual founding of Madrid occurred during the rule of Muhammad I, Emir of Córdoba, who ruled 852-886, and together with the fortifications around Toledo controlled one of the most important metropolis, Al Andalus, the Muslim-controlled area of the Iberian Peninsula. When the Caliphate dissolved at the beginning of the 11th century, Madrid was almost entirely obliterated. Now there only remains a 400ft long and 8ft wide section of defensive wall from the 9th century which was discovered in 1950. The volume devotes itself in detail to the capital and reveals a suspense-packed relationship to the Prado, one of the world's most important museums. For the first time not only is its excellent collection of paintings examined, but also the phenomenon as a whole and its complex relationship to Madrid and its history. This superbly illustrated Ullmann publication, with text in both German and English in parallel, looks at the origins of the city, the Castilian small town Madrid 1085-1561, the residence of the Habsburgs 1561-1700, the spectacular Prado Art Museum, the Bourbons 1700-1808, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the royal castles around Madrid. Extraordinary artworks like executions, Picasso's Woman in Blue, patinated bronze sculptures, details of famous paintings like Goya's The Execution on Principe Pio Hill with a detail of the dead man in a pool of blood, marbles and treasures and tapestries. See Cuatro Torres Business Area with its four modern high rise blocks on the Castellana, the main entrance to the Retiro Park, Madrid's 'green lung', gardens and fountains, the royal palace, the Plaza Mayor, the Plaza de España, the Caixaforum Art Centre with its vertical garden of greenery and the gift from Egypt of a temple from Aswan, here are the main streets like the Gran Via with the spectacular architecture of the Cine Callao in an Art Deco style. Enjoy the major buildings and monuments and opera houses and theatres, gilded churches, organ galleries and spectacular altars, newspaper articles. The text is jammed with hundreds of colour photographs and reproductions of paintings, artworks and collectables. 382 very large pages. Colour.
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