Weekend Update - Trip to the MFA
Saturday morning I was up bright and early and off to the MFA with Alena. She arrived bearing books as a belated birthday present. I am always so tickled when people remember me like that! =) We were chatting merrily on the way down, which probably had something to do with me taking the wrong exit onto 128/95 and heading towards Boston rather than Arlington, where we had planned to park at Alewife station. Luckily, from my time at Work in Davis Square, I know which exit to take off 93 to get to Slummerville, so we backtracked that way to the T station.
It started raining on the ride down, but was still only sprinkling by the time we got to the Museum. Turns out it was the perfect day to spend indoors. The worst kind of cold, wet spring day. My timing for a museum visit was excellent. =D
Stephen was having a group of friends over for a “gentleman’s afternoon” so before we went into the museum we sent him a text to remind him of the opportunity for Guild recruitment that he had in front of him. Nothing like period recruitment methods: the Hauptman plies you with liquor, and the next thing you know, you’re in the army! Hee!
We were there for the Dürer exhibit, which turned out to be smaller and yet better than I expected. There was only one room of prints. The last time I went to the MFA to view a print exhibit it was in a much larger space. But the prints that were on display were magnificent. Many of his more famous prints were already familiar from my recent bout of researching images that were produced during the Guild’s period: The Four Horsemen, Melancholia, Four Naked Women, Coat-of-Arms of Death, Knight Death and the Devil. And there were others that I’d never seen before. We slowly circled the room. I read through the descriptions and studied the details in the prints. Every now and then we’d point out something to each other or squeal quietly over some neat detail.
We both spent a long time in the middle of the room with our noses pressed to one of the tables, studying the long print Siege of a Fortress (that’s the best image I could find online, it’s so much better in person!). We pointed out the buildings on fire in the background. We studied the cannon’s positions and squeed over the wagons in the baggage train at the back of the action. We looked at the pike formations of both blocks and wedges. We noted the little pair of knights jousting in the middle lower left, and then finally decided from the directions that the flags were flying and that the cannons were firing that the group on the left must be the defenders coming out to meet the attackers on the right side of the page. Really we were such geeks. Lord knows what the other museum goers made of two girls getting so excited over a battle scene.
I took a bunch of pictures, which I’ll try to download and post tomorrow.
Once we’d made it around the room I asked Alena what she wanted to do next? She said something about how she always thought it was a shame to save the visiting the bookstore until the end of the day. I think we were both hoping to find a print of Siege of a Fortress, but sadly they did not have one. And they only had two books of Dürer prints, which was disappointing. We browsed the shelves for quite a while but never really made it out of the medieval/renaissance aisle. But that was perfectly OK.
Next stop was the basement, where we had lunch in the museum cafeteria. Then we headed upstairs to their main exhibit space to check out the Secrets of Tomb 10A exhibit. I think this is the third Egyptian exhibit that I’ve managed to catch at the MFA? Which is pretty cool, considering that I only get down there maybe once every year or so.
The exhibit was the contents of a single tomb of an Egyptian governor and his wife. Although it had been robbed in antiquity, the thieves took jewels, but left behind the majority of the tomb contents. Including a flotilla of model boats (58 wee boats!) and a pair of absolutely amazing painted coffins. I could have spent quite a bit of time standing with my nose pressed against the glass, taking in all the small details of the coffins, but I didn’t want to block other people’s view. May have to go back for a second visit to see them again. The details were amazing, especially the artist’s depiction of birds.
We hit the exhibit bookstore, where I found a postcard of the funeral mask from the exhibit that had caught my eye. I don’t know if it’s the fact that they’d painted a beard on him, but rather than looking like the usually stylized Egyptian art, he actually looked like someone I should know.
We had some time before the Museum closed, so we wandered the Medieval and Renaissance galleries, and toured the huge gallery of the Old Masters. Then we headed back to the bookstores for more browsing and actual purchasing.
They had books on Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, but I flipped through them and decided that the images they’d included were a bit too odd to be useful for costume research. The images that were useful I already have on my hard drive. I was eyeing the Complete Cranach and a Holbein book that included some of the work that he did while he was still in Germany. But I already own four Holbein books, and the Cranach was $80. I thought I already owned both of the Dürer books they had for sale, but it turns out, when I got home and checked, that I only own one of them. Oh well, I really need to try not to be too spendy until I pay my Federal income taxes and get my finances straightened out. So not buying that one was probably a good thing. I did buy three books: a hardcover of Renaissance Secrets : Recipes and Formulas, a paperback history of the Borgias, and a paperback book about holy relics called Rag and Bone.
And I’ll throw this in here, just because I think that merlin_v12 might enjoy it. Ralph Lauren’s car collection was an amazing exhibit back in 2005. Check out the video for a peek at what they had on display!
We caught the T back to Alewife, and drove home in the rain. Since it was such a cold, wet, miserable day we headed to Panera for hot soup. Even with their double doors, and us sitting by the fire, every time someone came in there was a blast of cold air. Truly miserable weather.
We were thinking about catching a movie, but when we got back to Frogholm and checked the listings, most everything was either stupid teenager comedies or action movies. Since I wasn’t in the mood to see Alice in Wonderland, we turned to my DVD collection instead. Alena asked me what I wanted to watch, and I told her that anything in my collection was something I’d be more than willing to see again. She pulled out four, two of which she’d already seen before. We ended up watching The Holiday because I absolutely adore Arthur Abbot and thought Alena might like him too.
Then I dragged out the laptop and we spent some time looking through some of the images I’ve been collecting and cataloging this winter. I also showed her the work I’ve been doing on compiling a handbook of “common knowledge” for the Guild, things that every 1529 peasant/soldier should know. It was nice to get a little positive feedback on everything I've been working on lately.
Sunday I gave into the lure of rainy weather and devoted to day to slugdom and multiple naps. I had planned to run some errands, but it seemed like a good day to stay indoors and be a vegetable.
It started raining on the ride down, but was still only sprinkling by the time we got to the Museum. Turns out it was the perfect day to spend indoors. The worst kind of cold, wet spring day. My timing for a museum visit was excellent. =D
Stephen was having a group of friends over for a “gentleman’s afternoon” so before we went into the museum we sent him a text to remind him of the opportunity for Guild recruitment that he had in front of him. Nothing like period recruitment methods: the Hauptman plies you with liquor, and the next thing you know, you’re in the army! Hee!
We were there for the Dürer exhibit, which turned out to be smaller and yet better than I expected. There was only one room of prints. The last time I went to the MFA to view a print exhibit it was in a much larger space. But the prints that were on display were magnificent. Many of his more famous prints were already familiar from my recent bout of researching images that were produced during the Guild’s period: The Four Horsemen, Melancholia, Four Naked Women, Coat-of-Arms of Death, Knight Death and the Devil. And there were others that I’d never seen before. We slowly circled the room. I read through the descriptions and studied the details in the prints. Every now and then we’d point out something to each other or squeal quietly over some neat detail.
We both spent a long time in the middle of the room with our noses pressed to one of the tables, studying the long print Siege of a Fortress (that’s the best image I could find online, it’s so much better in person!). We pointed out the buildings on fire in the background. We studied the cannon’s positions and squeed over the wagons in the baggage train at the back of the action. We looked at the pike formations of both blocks and wedges. We noted the little pair of knights jousting in the middle lower left, and then finally decided from the directions that the flags were flying and that the cannons were firing that the group on the left must be the defenders coming out to meet the attackers on the right side of the page. Really we were such geeks. Lord knows what the other museum goers made of two girls getting so excited over a battle scene.
I took a bunch of pictures, which I’ll try to download and post tomorrow.
Once we’d made it around the room I asked Alena what she wanted to do next? She said something about how she always thought it was a shame to save the visiting the bookstore until the end of the day. I think we were both hoping to find a print of Siege of a Fortress, but sadly they did not have one. And they only had two books of Dürer prints, which was disappointing. We browsed the shelves for quite a while but never really made it out of the medieval/renaissance aisle. But that was perfectly OK.
Next stop was the basement, where we had lunch in the museum cafeteria. Then we headed upstairs to their main exhibit space to check out the Secrets of Tomb 10A exhibit. I think this is the third Egyptian exhibit that I’ve managed to catch at the MFA? Which is pretty cool, considering that I only get down there maybe once every year or so.
The exhibit was the contents of a single tomb of an Egyptian governor and his wife. Although it had been robbed in antiquity, the thieves took jewels, but left behind the majority of the tomb contents. Including a flotilla of model boats (58 wee boats!) and a pair of absolutely amazing painted coffins. I could have spent quite a bit of time standing with my nose pressed against the glass, taking in all the small details of the coffins, but I didn’t want to block other people’s view. May have to go back for a second visit to see them again. The details were amazing, especially the artist’s depiction of birds.
We hit the exhibit bookstore, where I found a postcard of the funeral mask from the exhibit that had caught my eye. I don’t know if it’s the fact that they’d painted a beard on him, but rather than looking like the usually stylized Egyptian art, he actually looked like someone I should know.
We had some time before the Museum closed, so we wandered the Medieval and Renaissance galleries, and toured the huge gallery of the Old Masters. Then we headed back to the bookstores for more browsing and actual purchasing.
They had books on Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, but I flipped through them and decided that the images they’d included were a bit too odd to be useful for costume research. The images that were useful I already have on my hard drive. I was eyeing the Complete Cranach and a Holbein book that included some of the work that he did while he was still in Germany. But I already own four Holbein books, and the Cranach was $80. I thought I already owned both of the Dürer books they had for sale, but it turns out, when I got home and checked, that I only own one of them. Oh well, I really need to try not to be too spendy until I pay my Federal income taxes and get my finances straightened out. So not buying that one was probably a good thing. I did buy three books: a hardcover of Renaissance Secrets : Recipes and Formulas, a paperback history of the Borgias, and a paperback book about holy relics called Rag and Bone.
And I’ll throw this in here, just because I think that merlin_v12 might enjoy it. Ralph Lauren’s car collection was an amazing exhibit back in 2005. Check out the video for a peek at what they had on display!
We caught the T back to Alewife, and drove home in the rain. Since it was such a cold, wet, miserable day we headed to Panera for hot soup. Even with their double doors, and us sitting by the fire, every time someone came in there was a blast of cold air. Truly miserable weather.
We were thinking about catching a movie, but when we got back to Frogholm and checked the listings, most everything was either stupid teenager comedies or action movies. Since I wasn’t in the mood to see Alice in Wonderland, we turned to my DVD collection instead. Alena asked me what I wanted to watch, and I told her that anything in my collection was something I’d be more than willing to see again. She pulled out four, two of which she’d already seen before. We ended up watching The Holiday because I absolutely adore Arthur Abbot and thought Alena might like him too.
Then I dragged out the laptop and we spent some time looking through some of the images I’ve been collecting and cataloging this winter. I also showed her the work I’ve been doing on compiling a handbook of “common knowledge” for the Guild, things that every 1529 peasant/soldier should know. It was nice to get a little positive feedback on everything I've been working on lately.
Sunday I gave into the lure of rainy weather and devoted to day to slugdom and multiple naps. I had planned to run some errands, but it seemed like a good day to stay indoors and be a vegetable.