Old masters of art in the Spanish Golden Age (XVII) 📷 Málaga - Spain

Dramatic realism in art allows us to see the excellence in painting and sculpture of a time when artists created works that seemed alive.

Realistic painting is one of my favourites and the reason is because I feel that it brings things to life, to a point where it seems that the painting is real and you can touch it. In many cases it even gives you the feeling that things are coming out of the paintings, out of the frames. This is the type of painting that I like to see as much as to paint.

I discovered on one of my visits to the Thyssen Museum that there was a new room, a room of permanent paintings and sculptures, which I had never visited before. I was very pleased to find it and enjoy the good art I found there.

Entering through a small corridor I found signs announcing the exhibition and one inside the other, that is to say a temporary one inside the permanent one, but all referring to classical and antique paintings. I couldn't wait to see them.

The small hallway was divided into two rooms, one on the right and one on the left, where in one I could see the beautiful display of the old masters of art with a diversity of works in both sculpture and painting. Beautiful art beyond the religious style it has.

There was a lot of wood carving in Italian style, in polychrome wood, and much of the sculpture belonged to the medieval period.

Within the sculpture I saw angels, several of Christ, the Virgin Mary and within the painting, many wonderful paintings in the same ancient and religious style. But as I always say, it's not the idea that I look at in the paintings, in this case where they deal with religion, but the way they are painted, the details, for example, one of the paintings that I liked the most is where sheep appear, it's interesting to see the shape of the sheep.

Of course, one of the things I always focus on the most is the faces, the canvases, the cloaks, the colours, the expressions and gestures that make you think as if the artist had a model in front of him or a photograph of those people.

Many of the paintings, which were on the same wall, were all the same size, showing religious sequences, and with beautiful old frames. I love those stylish frames.

I always think about the dedication and time it takes to make a work or some of these works. It reminds me of when I used to make drawings or paintings in this style and the amount of hours it took me, it was too much. I value this kind of art very much.

In the other room I was able to enjoy the temporary exhibition called Santa Marina by Zurbarán, where the main focus was on portraits, both half and full-length. Most of the works were of the latter type of portraits.

All the paintings also had or were of a religious nature, but the important thing for me was to look at the faces, the delicately painted clothes, the details of each of them and the gazes in the portraits. Portraits of the divine, as the writing on the wall at the entrance to the exhibition said.

This type of baroque art was very realistic at that time, the 17th century, and the depictions of people were made in a dramatic way within realism, the emotion and feeling in the works was noticeable. It was a time of great masters of art. One of those I always remember is Velázquez, and how similar he is to Zurbarán in his paintings.

What we see in the paintings, according to a writing on one of the walls, is a collection of saints who created an important devotion in the baroque period. All of them female saints. In their faces you could see serenity, kindness and a lot of beauty.

I liked very much to see the features on the faces so well painted, so much talent in those paintings. The clothes, the costumes made with so much precision and detail, cloths that are not so easy to paint and give that volume, brightness, contrast and shadows needed to give realism to them.

The lighting can be seen in certain parts of all the paintings, especially in the faces, to highlight them from the rest of the composition. In painting and in the way it is done everything has a purpose, the lights are essential in certain parts of the canvas and that gives a lot of realism.

This collection of saints, women with unique expressions was a formidable display of art, and the contrast they chose on the walls with the red colour was even more beautiful.

I'm glad I found this part of the museum and enjoyed it, I feel that every day I discover something new and that motivates me more to find more art all over the city, the city of art.

Thank you all for joining me today, I send you a big hello. See you soon.
Amonet.