Loitering with intent in Lisbon 13

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. The rain in Portugal was a pain, especially without an umbrella! After a couple days of brilliant warm sunshine, the weather gradually deteriorated. At first it was just the occasional shower, then one morning we awoke to a deluge. At one point while sat in our flat the view from our window vanished completely behind a curtain of rain. Once it slackened off a bit, we slid down the slick cobbled streets to the local opium den which doubles as a shopping centre. Here a chap fixed us up with a brollie for €5 which be said was 'good for the wind.' I should probably cut back on the bananas for breakfast.

Umbrella in hand, we boarded a tram, this time one of the modern ones. We made it one stop down the line before one of the doors malfunctioned and everyone was marched off. Thankfully the rain had eased off and it was only a 5-minute walk along the riverfront to the National Museum of Ancient Art.

The roll call of Old Masters hanging on the walls seemed impressive. I noticed artists like Tiepolo, Bassano, Hooch, van Dyck and Reynolds but a lot of the works seemed fairly minor or turned out to be paintings 'in the style of...' or 'from the school of...'. The things that aristocrats had found at the back of the cupboards, in other words. The displays were bulked out with pieces of furniture and cases of ceramics, so first impressions were not great.

Then we happened on a room with some interesting pieces by Durer, Holbein and Cranach. 

Cranach the Elder's Salome

St Jerome by Durer

In another room we found the apostles by Zubaran, possibly a case of quantity over quality.

Probably the single most important painting (in my eyes) is The Temptations of St Anthony by Bosch, one of his phantasmagorical works that could easily take an hour or more to absorb and would probably take a lifetime to study and fully understand.

The basic gist is that St Anthony is trying to read his bible while trying not to be distracted by fish flying through the air and ice-skating birds wearing tin hats.

I'll have what he's having!

Some of the works were more interesting as pieces of history rather than art. For instance, there were a series of 16thC Japanese panels showing the big-nosed Portuguese arriving on their shores, plus old maps of Lisbon. 

All the works in the museum date from before 1850. The national collection originated in 1833 when the government abolished the religious orders and confiscated the contents of the monasteries. This is why the top floor of the gallery is dedicated solely to Portuguese art, practically all of it religious and to be honest most of it not that memorable. 

A number of rooms seemed to be shut off, but it was worth a gander for €5 and certainly a welcome break from the rain for an hour or so.