As you traverse through Madrid, seaking ancient knowledge and study-abroad credits, you’ll come across a wealth of exciting and tasty snacks, perfect for the starving student on their weary travels! As the City designated the capital by King Felipe II, it’s full of exciting, varied, and diverse foods just waiting for the bold traveller to explore!

While wandering the streets of Madrid, it’s essential to fuel your intellectual excursion with something hearty. The famous Cocido Madrileño is a perfect choice, with its warm broth full of an assortment of meats, chickpeas, and vegetables. It’s only available in the wintertime, so be sure to make a stop for it so that you can fill the void of the weary winter semesters. 

But perhaps our brave traveler is looking for something beyond the comforting nourishment of stew. Perhaps you’d like something strange and exciting, something you can smugly tell your family back home “oh yes, I ate that” while you look down your well-travelled nose. For this traveler, it’s imperative to try Caracoles a la Madrileña. Or in other words, snails. They’re slow simmered in chorizo, but any further detail is kept secret and elusive, the many different recipes aren’t to be shared, and every eating experience will be unique. This dish is unlike its fancy french brother, and is eaten with toothpicks and served in taverns and bars. 

But perhaps snails are just too tame for you. You’re looking for something your American friends at home would never think to eat. Then look no further than Gallinejas or Entresijos. This dish isn’t for the faint of heart, it’s bold, unique, and highly enjoyed by locals. It’s highly Madrid-specific, and you’ll certainly be embedding yourself in the culture by consuming this dish. What is it, you ask? It’s tripe! Or in other words, sheep entrails. 

Now all this adventuring is some hard work, and I think my dear traveler, you need something sweet to treat yourself. Have a sit down, eat some historically ambiguous churros, a creamy bartolillos, or glimmering, honey-glazed Pestiños (But only during Christmas or Holy Week!) and enjoy the magical beauty of Madrid. 

Christ Crucified, Diego Velázquez, 1632

Near the heart of the city of Madrid, its white columns glimmering in the rays of El Sol, stands the Museo Del Prado. Built in 1785 under the orders of King Charles III, it was originally intended to be the home of the National History Cabinet. Luckily for us, however, and thanks to the prompting of his wife, King Ferdinand VII (the grandson of King Charles) designated it as the Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures and now is the home of some of the most significant and beautiful works of art in the world. 

One such work, watching over the paintings in room 014, is Christ Crucified, painted by Diego Velázquez around 1632. It depicts Christ suspended on the cross, his pale figure illuminated against the darkness of the background, his isolation in his passion driven into our minds by the starkness and loneliness of his setting. By the wound on his side, we know that he’s already dead, but despite the gruesome details of the story of his death, this Christ is peaceful. He’s upright and firm, his face is calm and beautiful. Contrary to the more popular trend of the time of placing one foot atop the other, he’s instead held up by two feet planted on the suppedaneum, giving us a sense of rest, of stability, and of firmness. The Christ in this work is beautiful and calm- Velázquez is showing us a different aspect of this scene, drawing from the idea that Christ, while being beautiful in his soul, was also the most physically beautiful person to live. This isn’t the dramatic, emotional and gruesome crucifixions we’re used to seeing from the baroque. This Christ seems to be gently reposing on the cross, beautiful, serene, and solemn. His face is partially veiled by a curtain of his hair, drawing us in and inviting us to look closer to peak under and reveal the beauty of his face.

The entire painting, its solitary setting, its calmness and serenity, the four nails, the already dead Christ- everything even down to the fully written text above Christ’s head (“Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews” In Latin, Hebrew, and Greek), is a massive departure from the baroque trends of the time. They favored three nails, a living, suffering figure with a more dynamic, twisting pose, an abbreviated INRI instead of the written text, and most significantly, the drama and emotion of the typical Baroque crucifixion. 

All these aspects that Velázquez is rejecting and the solemnity of the iconographic quality he’s embracing come from the ideas of the artist Pacheco, who advocated for these breaks in the trends in his book Art of Painting. His idea was to create something that was ancient, that pulled from the old iconographic ideas of painting, that inspired the viewer with its solemnity. Pacheco believed that painting was the superior medium, it could, he said, create something embraceable. Paintings such as this were made for chapels and churches, to be hung among the softly glowing candles and gazed upon during prayer. Pacheco wanted artists to create an experience– the solemnity of feeling as though the figure was incarnate in front of you, and if you reached out, you could embrace it. 

These ideas are more than evident in Velázquez’ Christ- He took these ideas and transcended them into something above and beyond anything attempted before. His Christ is so soft and lifelike, so delicate and beautiful, it feels as though you have to hold your breath or you might disturb the sweet rest of the gentle figure. Unlike any painting of its time, Velázquez shows us a Christ that is gently reposing on the perfectly crafted cross, enveloped in softness and light, stretching out his arms on the beams of the cross, inviting your embrace. This is just one masterpiece in the Museo del Prado, and its richness, significance, and symbolism could be studied for days. I invite anyone, whether a student or teacher of the arts, of history, of theology, or anything in between, to come and experience the embraceability Pacheco so strongly advocated for, embodied, or more appropriately incarnate in the dazzling work of Velázquez.