Avoiding the heat

It is hot in Seville. In fact it’s hot over most of Europe right now, but Seville does manage a dry, pounding heat like few other places. So after the aircon broke down at school today I headed to the Museo de Belles Artes, known as the second best art gallery in Spain, as much for finding a cool calm place as for improving my mind.

I’m not sure how to rank galleries but I imagine that there are other galleries that would argue the toss about Seville’s being the second best. That said, it’s a great gallery of Sevillian artists and in an a amazing old convent decorated with local tiles and with cloisters full of orange trees. Much of the art is very religious and not to my taste although I found a couple of pieces captivating.

One painting that really caught my attention, not because of its quality but because of its subject matter. It is titled A Summer Night in Seville and was painted in the 1800s. The people collapsed sleeping outside where there is the slightest breeze to escape the heat just shows that extreme temperatures are nothing new to Seville.