|
Even if only briefly in the city,
a visit to its museums is a must: the Museo de
Artes y Costumbres Populares (Folk Arts Museum),
former Meson de la Victoria (Victory Inn) and
the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) in
the Palacio de los Condes de Buenavista (Palace
of the Counts of Buenavista). Several Cofradias
(Brotherhoods) have created their own Casa-Hermandad
(Brotherhood House) which are like museum of the
pieces of work under their possession; we have
to mention the Cofradia de la Expiracion (Expiration
Brotherhood), next to the Iglesia de San Pedro
(Church of St. Peter), in the former Perchel quarter,
and the Cofradia de la Virgen de la Esperanza
(Our Lady of Hope Brotherhood), neae the Iglesia
de Santo Domingo (Church of St. Dominic), which
is another excellent example of the religious
baroque architecture on the other side of the
Guadalmedina river. Visitors will be surprised
with the beauty of its images and the wealth of
the processional furnishings.
The Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) is
located in the Palacio de Buenavista (Palace of
Buenavista) in Calle San Agustin (St. Augustine
Street). The building is an austere construction
of the 16th century which combines classicist
elements with mudejar ones. The elegant courtyard
has a type of column whose capitals are decorated
according to a local model, crafted in Malaga
since the arrival of the Christians to the city
and probably by mudejar craftsmen, which recalls
the Corinthian order but more stylized and which
is also associated with Islamic geometric features.
The most important funds are made up of the collection
of 19th century local paintings.
The high quality of the Malaga's art achieved
in this century can be appreciated in the halls
dedicated to the masters of this painting centre,
Ferrandiz and Muñoz Degrain, and in the
others which exhibit paintings of the best representative
painters: Moreno Carbonero, Denis Belgrano, Martinez
de la Vega, Emilio Ocon, Enrique Simonet, Enrique
Jaraba, Blanco Coris, Jose Nogales, Fernando Labrada,
Pedro Saenz, Galbien, Murillo Bracho, Jose Gatner,
Horacio Lengo. Alongside them, as a deposit of
the Museo del Prado (Prado Museum), we find on
show some pieces of work by national authors of
the same century, such as Sorolla, Salas, Ramon
Casas, Viniegra. A comparison between both groups
shows the high place occupied by the paintings
of 19th century Malaga. Several rooms dedicated
to Moreno Villa and some contemporary painters
representatives of the local vanguard confirm
the quality of the artistic practice produced
in Malaga. Two of the first pieces of work by
Picasso are shown in a special room: Estudio de
viejo (Study of the old man) and El viejo de la
manta (The old man of the blanket) supposedly
his father's portrait given as a present to his
first master Antonio Muñoz Degrain who
donated it to the Museum, together with many of
his own pieces of work and ones from his collection.
The other museum we recomend that you visit is
the Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares (Folk
Arts Museum), in the Meson Victoria (Victory Inn),
an inn built in the 17th century. It is a very
typical example of the folk architecture and it
has been rehabilitated as an ethnological museum
now receiving funding from the UNICAJA finance
company. Together with the cham of the building,
there is an assorted content which reproduces
the main crafts and industrial activities of the
area. It shows Malaga as a seafaring city, a wine
merchant, an oil merchant, a blacksmith, a potter
and a exporter of raisins and dried figs. We can
find a flourmill, an oil mill, a kitchen of an
Andalusian countryhouse, a rural bedroom of the
19th century, clothing and accessories of the
19th century bourgeoisie of Malaga, objects of
popular religiosity, lithographs, an important
collection of earthenware figures which reproduce
popular "types" of the 19th century,
made by sculptors from Malaga specialists in this
art, and a magnificent collection of bullfight
and folk festival posters. All of this makes up
a museum through which
we enter the heart of the Malaga's most age-old
customs. In some special rooms, Arturo Reyes'
and Narciso Diaz de Escobar's offices are reproduced.
The former was a writer at the end of the 19th
century and beginning of the 20th century who
described the customs of his country and the latter
was a journalist and an intellectual from Malaga.
We can get to this museum by taking an alternative
intinerary.
From Plaza de la Constitucion (Constitution Square)
and through Calle Compatiia (Company Street),
we can go on until Puerta Nueva (New Gate), turn
to the south and stop at the Pasillo de Santa
Isabel (St. Elisabeth's Corridor), in the Museo
(Museum). After visiting it, we can enter the
heart of the streets of this neighbouring area
where backstreets and folk houses are preserved,
then reaching the area of Calle San Juan (St.
John Street) in order to visit the church with
the same name or Calle Nueva (New Street) with
an active commercial life.
|
