Toledo

I figured I would catch up on some blogging instead of reading my rather dull cinema packet...

Last Friday was our first group trip of the semester. At 9:30 a.m., all eighty-three of us piled into two large buses and made our way to the beautiful town of Toledo. The town is one of the only places in the world that at one point in time muslims, cristians, and jews lived together peacefully. From the architecture throughout the city, visitors can piece the timeline together and view the influence each group had on one another.

As we pulled into Toledo, we were all stunned at this beautiful, medieval town. Although it is small, Toledo is filled with history! There is a large catedral located near the middle of town, a monastery near the outskirts, and two synagogue to the southwest (I forgot how to spell this in English and had to look it up lol). Additionally, in between the two synagogues you will find the museo del greco, which is actually a house similar to El Greco´s that was turned into a museum. Unfortunately this museum has been under renovations for the past six months or so and we weren´t able to go in. We were able to go into the church which contains the famous painting, The Burial of Count Orgaz, by El Greco. We weren´t able to take photos (although one person did and I have yet to get ahold of it), so I have posted an internet version of the painting.

Now a little history on El Greco. El Greco, or "The Greek", was actually Doménikos Theotokópoulos; however, this was clearly too difficult to pronounce hence the nickname. He was a famous painter who is known for his dual scenery (depicting two different scenes within the same painting), realistic colors, and elongated figures. El Greco was very confident in his art and considered Michelangelo´s work on the Sistine Chapel somewhat unappealing. When El Greco heard of the construction of El Escorial in Spain (which I will visit later in the semester), he traveled to Spain in hopes of proving his talent within the chapel. Although he never painted in El Escorial, his work was distributed throughout many churches within Toledo, a major city at the time.

Now, The Burial of Count Orgaz. When you first view this painting, you notice the dual scenery almost instantly. Below is the count´s mortal death on earth surrounded by all his family and friends, while above is the count being welcomed into his new life in heaven. As you will notice, Mary sits just below the count´s spirit to the left and Jesus is to the right. Directly on each side of the count are two angels (I can´t remember their names at the current moment) welcoming the count into the afterlife. Just below the angel on the left you can spot a man holding keys dangling from a string...this would be Saint Peter.

The most interesting aspect of the death scene below for me would be the gentleman starting straight ahead in the painting. All the figures in the painting are concentrated on the count except for this one. This figure is actually a selfportrait of the artist himself. As in many works of art of this time, the figure staring straight ahead in the painting is the actual artist placing himself in his own work.

We also went into the catedral, which was absolutely stunning! And freezing I might add. Photos were forbidden in there as well; however, because little sunlight was able to filter into the catedral, I doubt any photos without flash would have given the catedral justice.

After our guided tours, we were given two hours of free time to roam the quaint town. Unlike Madrid, Toledo still follows the afternoon siesta, so many shops and museums were closed during our spare time. Therefore, we walked through the winding streets taking in the beauty of this ancient city.

As many of you have heard me complain about this week, the only downfall to Toledo was the streets. Because asphault was not readily available in the early seventh and eighth centry, the people used small, round rocks to construct their streets. Although pretty, this is not the most comfortable walking surface especially if you are wearing Converse senakers. Of course being the intelligent person I am, I neglected to pack my running sneakers due to lack of space. Therefore, by the end of the day my feet were in immense pain. During the rest of the weekend my feet continued to spasm in pain and yesterday I was forced to purchase new running shoes. (Which ended up being 120 Euro Nike sneakers because regular shoe stores aka zapaterias only carry boots fashonable sneakers without support.) My feet are starting to feel better, so hopefully in a week or so they should be back to normal!

I´m posting from work so I will put up photos later this evening, as well as a post about my afternoon at the Reina Sofia!