Museum of Málaga

Tuesday February 18 was a cloudy and cooler day with a high of 17C.   We headed out to the Museum of Málaga.   En route, we passed a sculpture of Salomon Ben Gabirol,  a Jewish philosopher and Andalusian poet born in Málaga around 1021, who died in Valencia around 1058.  Ben Gabirol was one of the most famous Spanish Jews of the Middle Ages.

We arrived at the Museo de Málaga, (Museum of Málaga), where we had dinner last Friday.  The Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes (Provincial Museum of Fine Arts)(1913) and Museo Arquelógico Provincial (Provincial Archeological Museum)(1947) were brought together in 1972.  In 2016, the merged Museum opened at its present location in the Palacio de la Aduana (Customs House commissioned in 1787 and completed in 1791).   It is a beautiful museum with impressive collections.  Paintings are located on the first floor and the archeological collection is found on the second floor.

Looking down at the courtyard.

Entrance to the Museum

There was a very interesting small temporary exhibit on the main floor.  It featured sculptures by Miguel Berrocal,  born in Villanueva de Algaidas (Málaga) in 1933.  He left Spain in 1954 and lived in Rome, Paris and Verona before returning to his birth place in 2004.

There is an interesting story behind the pieces on display.  In 1975, he and his wife travelled to the Belgian Ardennes where he found and bought twenty old anvils.  They would be the origin of 10 "Almogavares"mentioned in an epic poem.   The Almogavares were Aragonese, Catalan and Balearic warriors.  Their cry of war was "Desperta Ferro".  The sculptures Berrocal made with those very heavy anvils were called Almogavares.  They were constructed in Verona between 1981-83.

Location of the museum

The Almogávares

Further down the main floor was a storage area open to the public.  Nothing was labelled but there was an incredible collection of mosaics, sculptures, paintings and pottery.  It was great just to wander around.

Someone's feet

Lots of incredible mosaics

A horse

Incomplete

Birds

Beautiful old pottery

And new pottery

Model of the Alcazaba

Alano checking out the storage area

Him too...

We went up to the first floor to see the collection from the former Museum of Fine Arts.  There was a great view of the city street below.

View of street scene

There were not many works prior to the 19th century with a few notable exceptions.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) Saint Francis of Paola (c. 1665-69)

Luis de Morales, "The Divine" (c. 1510-86) Our Lady of the Sorrows (c. 1550-1580)

There was a section devoted to landscape painting in 19th century Málaga.  Some beautiful paintings.

Emilio Ocón y Rivas (1845-1904) Shipwreck/The Final Wave, 1893

José Gartner de la Peña (1866-1918) Old Quay in the Port of Málaga, 1887

Emilio Ocón y Rivas- View of the Port of Málaga, 1881

Carlos de Haes, The Fortified Walkway of La Coracha, Málaga 1876

He was instrumental in making Málaga an important centre of painting in the latter half of the 19th century.  He came from Valencia and was the Composition and Colouring Chair at the San Telma School of Art.

The following painting was one of my favourites:

Bernardo Ferrándiz y Bádenes (1835-1885) The Political Charlatan/Elect Me and the Nation Will be Saved 1866

José Denis Belgrano (1844-1917) After the Bullfight. (The celebration took place in a Málaga courtyard)

Belgrano-Self-Portrait 1864

There were numerous paintings by José Moreno Carbonero, an outstanding painter of the Málaga School and its most widely recognised painter internationally.

José Moreno Carbonero (1860-1942), Portrait of the Painter's Wife/ Maria Castel, c.1900-1910

Carbonero- Children at Play, 1871

Carbonero- Portrait of the Painter's Mother/Rosario Carbonero Romero, 1882

Carbonero- Portrait of the Painter's Father/José Moreno Delgado, 1882

Carbonero- Self-Portrait 1895

Vicente Palmaroli y González (1834-1896), Amelia the Model, 1890

Enrique Jaraba Jiménez (1871-1926), At the Barracks Door, c. 1895

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) Basque Drinker,  1910

There was a section devoted to the Avant-Garde in Málaga, from Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) to José Moreno Villa (1887-1955).

Picasso, Jarra, Vallauris, France, 1954

Poet, researcher, art critic and painter.  His involvement in republican cultural projects forced him out of Franco's Spain and into exile in Mexico.

Villa, Lemon Trees Still Life, 1924

                                                   Villa, Still Life with Ace of Hearts c. 1927-1931

Villa, Still Life with Die and Flower Vase, 1931

The gallery noted that the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War made it impossible for the artistic avant-garde to flourish in Spain; the borders were closed to European innovations, and artists were encouraged to develop a more traditional figurative style.  After Franco, the avant-garde movement in Málaga emerged.

Gabriel Alberca Castaños, Alberca (1934-2011) The Magician 1976

Joaquin De Molina (1952-1986), The New Presentation of Architecture, 1985

There also was a room with a special exhibit of drawings by Picasso from the album Faunes et Flore d'Antibes, 1946.

Still Life with Green Lemon, Two Fish and Two Moray Eels, Antibes, 1946

Still Life with Three Lemons, Fruit Dish of Grapes and a Bottle, Antibes, 1946

Head of a Faun on a Silver Grey Background, Antibes, 1946

We then went up to the Archeology floor.  The first few rooms contained the private archaeology collection by the Marquises of Casa Loring in the mid 19th century at their La Concepción estate.  The collection was in its time one of the most important in Spain and the origin of the Archaeological Museum of Málaga.

Heads from the first century Córdoba

Finds from 18th century excavations in Cártama, from the Lorings collection

There were then rooms with artefacts from prehistoric caves, the Phoenician period, Roman conquest, the Moslem Al-Andalus period, including finds at Alcazaba.  There was also information on the finding in 1951 of the Roman amphitheatre dating back to the first century.

Central motif of mosaic with depiction of Priapus-- 1st century, Villa of Bobadilla, Antequera

Dressel 12 type amphora Early1st century

Corbel with relief of winged Victory, Marble, late 2nd century, Calle Alcazabilla , Málaga

The Birth of Venus Mosaic- found in the mid-1950s in Cártama, once one of the province's most important Roman cities.  The scene is of Venus floating on a shell.

Mosaic of the Birds-5th century, Faro de Torrox

There was an interesting note (see below) about how ideology has influenced the course of history and archaeology.  With Franco entrenched in power and determined to prove the Spanish people's Aryan heritage in order to strengthen political ties with Germany, research into Spain's Visigothic past became a matter of state.  In anticipation of Heinrich Himmler's visit to Spain in 1940, a hasty excavation of the Visigothic Necropolis of Castiltierra, Segovia province, was ordered.   The artefacts were divided among various provincial museums.  The reasoning was that Spain's museums need to be able to explain that "official" version of history.

Interesting bit of history

From the Alcazaba

After our visit to the Museum, we decided to go for a vermouth at Antigua Casa de Guardia.  Straight from the barrel and delicious--- only 1.40 euro a glass.   The bar bill is chalked on the bar in front of you and erased when you pay.

Great ambiance-- there were a number of people having vermouth or sweet wines or sherry at the long bar

Even Picasso drank there

After our vermouth, we took a round about route back to Mia coffee shop where we had flat whites and shared a piece of very good vegan orange chocolate cake.  The barista even remembered our orders from yesterday.

At Mia coffee shop

We headed back to Constitution Plaza where they are setting up a small stage for Carnaval which starts on Friday.   We noticed a tour stopped in front of metal plaques imbedded in the square.  They were replicas of the December 7, 1978 front pages from the major newspapers with the results of the referendum which brought democracy to Spain.

Buenos dias Democracia!!

We wandered some more and then headed back to the apartment at around 7:15 p.m.  Alano made a delicious dinner of chicken, zucchini and potatoes with the remainder of our bottle of Rioja.