At the Prado gallery in Madrid on Saturday I discovered three things:-
1. You weren’t allowed to paint a smiling face until around 1510,
2. Velasquez was a superb artist but couldn’t do horses. Or not their heads at least. Either this or horses have
changed an awful lot in 500 years, and
3. If you want to see the Manet exhibition, you can get the appropriate additional ticket at only one of the three
entrances. If you go through one of the others, when you get to the Manet suite you [along with hundreds of
others] will be told that you have to exit the building and come in through the right door. Bemusingly, there is
no additional charge. You just have to do it the right way. The logic of this escapes me, especially as there
appear to be no signs anywhere telling you that this is the procedure. Most people don’t bother, of course,
especially as the queues at the right door are long. Perhaps therein lies the logic; it reduces the flow.