So we went this weekend to the musuem, to look at the
15th-century altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo cathedral. Now the exhibition was interesting for any number of reasons: nifty medieval paintings, delving into the artistic techniques of the period, getting to see the artists' sketches beneath the paintings through this cool infrared technology (yay, underdrawing!); plus there were several rooms of Spanish painting through subsequent ages, including an Immaculate Conception who looked like she was standing on three severed baby heads (they were cherubs).
All of which was pretty cool.
But the thing that had me really freaked out? There's a hole in the
Ecce Homo from the altarpiece ... that was put there during
Wellington's siege on the city in 1812! I got to see a hole in a painting put there during the Napoleonic wars! OMG SQUEE!
/nerd