We consoled ourselves by a late morning, leisurely visit to the Thyssen Collection, so beautifully housed in a building nearly opposite the Prado, designed and installed by Rafael Moneo and opened in 1992. As ever, I was amazed by the quality of the early paintings, most of which were acquired by Heinrich Thyssen from his father who acquired them while living in Hungary and later in Lugano from the wealth of his steel and armaments empire.
My highlights were:-
The panel from Duccio’s Maesta:-
The panels by Gabriel Maelesskircher of Saint Matthew at his Desk:-
An anonymous German painting of The Descent from the Cross:-
Dieric Bouts’s Virgin and Child:-
Juan de Flandres, Lamentation:-
Rogier van der Weyden’s Madonna Enthroned:-
Petrus Christus’s Our Lady of the Dry Tree:-
Ercole de’ Roberti’s Argonauts leaving Colchis:-
Cosimo Tura’s Saint John the Evangelist in Patmos:-
Memling’s Portrait of a Young Man:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Wonderful selection, thank you so much. The Memling is stunning.
And we could have had it ! One of the worst mistakes that Mrs Thatcher made …..
She tried very hard – offered Thyssen the NPG (it was going to go to Canary Wharf) and sent Claude Drielsma and Robin Butler to his villa in Lugano to discuss possible terms. Charles
What a superb collection! I remember you wrote about the fiasco of the negotiation to bring this collection to the UK before. I agree with Mark that it was a pity it didn’t come, as I have far less possibility of visiting Spain. However, they are beautiful paintings and I in particular liked Dieric Bouts and Rogier van der Veyden. I saw them for the first time and was very impressed by the high quality of skill of these relatively unfamiliar (at least to me) artists. Thank you for giving me a great pleasure of looking at these wonderful pictures.
Thanks for the pictures – a treat on this grey day. Hope your luggage turns up.