Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

 Bom Dia,

My AC adaptor broke, so I'm running on limited battery power, and I'm not going to post tomorrow.  All I'm doing is shopping and packing anyway.  My flight leaves really early on Tuesday morning, so the proprietor kindly arranged to have me picked up by a taxi.  I can do a lot of things on my phone fortunately, so I'll be fine.  I just can't blog.

Today I went to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga--old art as opposed to Modern or Contemporary Art. Getting there was easy, once I figured out the map on my phone.  I took bus 760.  I had the idea that I'd seen the museum from the tram, and I spotted it so I knew where to get off. Of course, then I was confronted by some stairs, but at the top was a pretty pocket park and my museum.

It's big and very nice.  The lighting is excellent and the exhibits don't feel crowded.  A lot of people showed up later, but I never felt the place was packed.  I strolled around leisurely.  It's mostly paintings and objets d'art.  Portugal has a long history of contacts with Asia, and they still have Macau, I think, in case you want to go gambling near Hong Kong.  I mention this because I have been blown away in many of the museums I've visited by the gorgeous Ming and Qing Dynasty porcelains and screens.  Most of them are huge, too.  I could almost fit inside myself.

I viewed the Portuguese paintings.  I enjoyed them and noted some influences from Flanders and Italy, but I did not recognize any names.  They are mostly devotional in nature, but there's the occasional portrait.  I went on the extensive collection of painters from the rest of Europe.  They even have a St. Jerome by the notorious Protestant Albrecht Durer.  Lots of St. Jeromes by the way.  He's popular in Lisbon.  I saw some striking works by the Spaniard Ribiera.  The works are arranged chronologically by style, and one can see a gradual fading of religious works in favor of portraits and landscapes.  So I had a happy wander though this fabulous museum.

Then I decided to be cute.  I didn't want to go back down the stairs and believed I could pick up a bus that would take me to Praca do Comercial.  Such a bus does exist--and it came--late--and refused to open its doors to me.  I got into a conversation with a couple of gentlemen at the stop.  Their bus wasn't running at all on Sundays!  And they suggested I walk down hill to get a tram.  Usually public transportation in Lisbon is very reliable, but something must have been going on because I didn't see any trams running and the next bus was scheduled to arrive in 90 minutes.  I decided to keep going.  I knew there was a metro station at the train station so I headed there.  It was a longish walk, but the metro brought me right to my home station.

There's rain the forecast for this afternoon and all week.  I am having apero of green tea and cheese.  I intend to pick up some good goodies to bring home.

Adeus!