Connections/Spain

My name is Inés Powell, and I'm an educator here in the museum. I was born in Bilbao, Spain, and I often think that I'm very lucky to work in this museum

because it is very difficult to be homesick. Any time I feel a little bit nostalgic about Spain

all I have to do is walk around the galleries. I actually have a special route, which I call my route

through Spain. A lot of it is work that I have been seduced by because of

its beauty. And other times I have personal connections. Some of these objects were made in the north

belt clasp, which was made by the Celts in the Iberian Peninsula. And I love this object because when I was in elementary school, the first chapter of my book dealt with the Celtics. I never thought I was going to see objects such as this one.

The Muslims were in Spain for 800 years, so they left us with a lot of objects. And the museum has many of them, large and small ones, but the object that I like best is very, very small. It's the Plaque from a casket and it's made out of ivory.

And it's decorated with pairs of animals and beautiful dancing couples.

It's so delicate that sometimes I forget that I'm looking at ivory, it looks almost like lace. From that very small object, I like to go to what I consider, and I really think it is,

the largest object from Spain in the Metropolitan Museum, the Patio from Vélez Blanco. I love the space. I find the space so elegant, so full of air, and at one point I became so obsessed with the courtyard that I traveled to Spain and I wanted to see what was left of the castle itself.

So when I went to the village of Vélez Blanco, it seems that half of the village, including the mayor, came to see me because I was coming from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. After a while they told me that they all wanted to come to see our patio, and I said yes, but I didn't think they were going to come.

And about a month later I got an email saying, "Fifteen of the citizens of the village of Vélez Blanco will be in New York in two weeks." And they all came here and they loved the patio. Actually they were crying.

They felt that we took care of the patio for them, that if it hadn't been in New York, it would have been destroyed. It was very touching to be with all those people, here in New York.

I never finish my special tour of Spain without going to the painting galleries. Of course I go and see one of the works of El Greco that I like most. And actually he dies before he finishes that work. I have heard all my life about this work because before the painting comes to the Met, the painting was in the collection of a painter, and he happened to be my grandparents' friend and neighbor in the little town of Zumaya.

It is a very special work for me because I believe that only El Greco could have made such a vision, and to convince you that this is a visual not of this earth. From that painting

I always go and see Manuelito. Manuelito is the son of the count of Altamira. He has a very long name for such a little boy, Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga. I go and see Manuelito because Manuelito looks so charming, Manuelito looks so rich

but he looks so sad that I always feel like he needs a little bit of company.

Once I finish the walk in the museum it's like I have been already in Spain, at least for a few minutes, and I could

go back to New York and enjoy everybody's culture.