Greetings from Madrid. I haven’t been to Spain in a couple of years, but the big art story here — the premiere of the Royal Collection Gallery — hasn’t been covered much in the U.S., though it’s the country’s grandest new museum project since the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum opened in 1999. The gallery — actually a freestanding, purpose-built museum — displays the very best things in the royal collection.
The Royal Palace, next to the new building, isn’t a museum catering to the public, as sumptuous as it is. It caters to the king and his court. It’s a stage set for ceremonies. And, with 3,418 rooms, it’s the biggest palace in Europe and makes Buckingham Palace look like a starter home in Levittown. The palace is still the place to go for sublime ceiling paintings by Tiepolo and Corrado Giaquinto, and for an arms and armor collection second to none.
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