WHERE BRUSHSTROKE GROWS FLUID AND ENERGETIC – Bartolomè Esteban Murillo and the effects of lighting

BARTOLOME’ ESTEBAN MURILLO 1/3 – He was born into a family of artists, because its uncle (Antonio Pérez) was a painter, who was married to the daughter of another Sevillian artist (Vasco de Pereira). He was the most popular Baroque religious Spanish painter, and the rich colors and broad brushwork of his later paintings were influenced by 16-century Flemish painters. …

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IN THE HISTORIC CENTER – Seville Palace House / Hotel Abanico

http://www.hotelabanico.com/ Enjoy your breakfast in the Andalusian Patio, and start the day with coffee or tea, cocoa or chocolate, assorted breads and pastries, using free Wi-Fi in the Patio Sevillano. Monumental free city visit? Enjoy a free guided tour of the main monuments of Seville,with departures from the hotel (every day at 10.00 h. / Duration 2.5 hours / Available …

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LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE – Novel, by Laura Esquivel

Like Water for Chocolate, it is a novel by Laura Esquivel, a woman who devoted herself to teaching, writing works of children’s theater and film scripts. In her novels, she uses magic realism, ie a combination of the supernatural with the everyday. In the novel, the writer proclaims the importance of the kitchen as the most important place of the …

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SPANISH POETRY – The dream, by Nino Oval

EL SUENO – Una vez, tuve un sueño, ¡un sueño muy bonito! Pudo haber sido grande, pero se quedó chiquito. Llegó como flor de primavera, como rosa principesca. Y encendió como la yesca, hasta la más yerma quimera. En el puño muy cerrado, lo guardé celosamente. Ni tan siquiera la mente, podía abrir el candado. Quise que conociera a la …

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ROMANTIC SPANISH POEMS – Body of a woman, by Pablo Neruda

CUERPO DE MUJER – Cuerpo de mujer, blancas colinas, muslos blancos, te pareces al mundo en tu actitud de entrega. Mi cuerpo de labriego salvaje te socava, y hace saltar el hijo del fondo de la tierra. Fui solo como un túnel. De mí huían los pájaros, y en mí la noche entraba su invasión poderosa. Para sobrevivirme te forjé …

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SPANISH LOVE POEMS – Verdades, anonymous Spanish poet

VERDADES – No me preguntes si te amo, porque esa pregunta me ofende, si pudiera colocar moneda sobre moneda para hacer una torre de todo lo que siento, créeme llegaría hasta el cielo. Te amo mujer, amo tu historia, amo tu vida, y amo tu paz, me gusta verte estornudar, tu manía de tocarte el cabello, tu nerviosismo cuando beso …

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DREAM DEFERRED – Poetry, by Langston Hughes

First published in 1921, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, became Hughes’s signature poem, collected in his first book of poetry “The Weary Blues”. James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, one of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry. He is known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. DREAM DEFERRED …

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A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM – Poetry, by Edgar Allan Poe

He was an American writer. Edgar Allan Poe, is best known for his poetry and short stories, (particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre). He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and is considered the inventor of the “detective fiction genre”. He was found delirious, on the streets of Baltimore, in great …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / NEW YORK – Metropolitan Museum of Art: Isle of the Dead, by Arnold Böcklin

He was born on 1827 in Basel, attending the Dusseldorf Academy. At this time he painted scenes of the Swiss Alps. In 1848, his romantic introspection gave way to plein air, after he was influenced by Corot and Delacroix. But after the June revolutions, Arnold Böcklin returned to Basel, and he resumed painting gloomy mountain scenes. He resided in Florence …

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