I received a complaint today. That's what the last post was about. The Prado is probably my favorite museum in the world, though there are still quite a few I haven't seen. For its importance it's small; the Metropolitan and the Louvre are much bigger, and I can't imagine how it would compare to the Hermitage. Pound for pound however, it's amazing. The Titian's alone are worth the price of the trip. There was a strong link between Venice and Madrid. And if Florence is not well represented, northern Europe is: Bosch, Durer, Baldung. Velazquez: The conflict between a reactionary Catholic idealism and an empirical humanism was what so fascinated and impressed post revolutionary France. A Catholic, rather than a Protestant, realism. Actually Warhol represented the same thing. Deeply conservative but profoundly moral, and observant of those around him. His early work, the electric chairs. Double Elvis. Austere and tragic. Interesting bit of gossip: Warhol worked in a soup kitchen once a week, on Sunday after Mass, until the day he died.