Here is the astonishing Cerralbo museum in Madrid, where I dragged a colleague with whom I had meetings in the Hispanic capital.
After a wait of more than forty-five minutes in the Spanish Summer heat (read: we were very hot), we were able to access this old 19th century palace, which belonged to the Marquess of Cerralbo, a politician, historian and great – too great – collector.
Was the wait worth it? Absolutely not. Were we dazzled? Hell no.
The place is stuffed and bloated. Too many objects, too many armors, too much gold. The furniture is surprisingly often gross. Decorative objects are often uninteresting. There is no sense of proportion, of geometry, of refinement.
The architecture of the place sets the tone: built in 1892, the neo-classical style palace has more than surprising neo-baroque and neo-rococo elements.
The palace, originally designed as a museum and donated to the Spanish State, presents more than 50,000 objects of art, including furniture, paintings, ceramics and tapestries, archeology objects, books and even armor.
Furthermore, the palace’s dual purpose as a residence and museum explains the great dissimilarity that exists between the private apartments and the rest of the palace.
The sobriety of the entrance is followed by the double staircase. The imposing ramp comes from the ancient Salesas Reales monastery, the busts are Roman, the tapestries date from the 17th century and the overwhelming chandelier illuminates the coat of arms of the Marquess of Cerralbo.
The double staircase, supposed to underline the aristocratic prestige of the owner of the palace, is followed by the bourgeois and uninteresting comfort of the private apartments.
Let’s move on to the main floor. It was, as we understood, intended to underline the social rank of the owner and was therefore reserved for official and ceremonial life. The armory gallery was used for the hand-kissing ceremony of the guests, a bathroom – very avant-garde at the time – is adjacent (but I don’t understand why it is located here), the Arabic salon was obviously reserved only for gentlemen since it is a smoking room.
The only room I liked was the study – but I know that I am absolutely subjective, as I am sensitive to the 10,000 books that it contains.
The rooms follow one another – from the Small Columns Room (which brings together small Etruscan, Egyptian, Roman and Greek columns) to the dining room via the ballroom – and the decoration is more and more loaded.
What is the conclusion to this visit?
Like any museum visitor, I suffer from a cognitive bias which makes me assume that if it is old, it is beautiful. Nothing could be less true. Good and bad taste have always coexisted and will coexist for a long time to come.
The definition of good taste is ultimately quite subjective – and perhaps will you be among those who will be dazzled by the Cerralbo museum.
Was my colleague mad at me for making her waste two hours in this Alibaba-esque temple? No. She is one of those women who don’t say a lot but notices everything, and when I saw her smirk, I quickly understood that our impression was the same. At the end of the visit, we were disappointed but amused, happy to have tried, since ultimately life is only made of attempts, successful or not.
September 13, 2024
