Today’s adventures

[fbhjr]

Despite some snow on the ground this morning, we decided to go through with our plan to go into the art museum (Museum of Fine Arts) in Boston. (http://www.mfa.org )
One of the few redeeming features of my mother was she was a member of the museum and therefore we could go as often as we wanted for free. So, as a kid, I went to the museum a lot. But, I haven’t been in 20 or so years.
We stopped for breakfast at McD’s on the way in. (I had planned to go to “the world’s slowest McD’s in Westborough until my wife begged me to go to the one on the Mass Pike instead.)
The problem with going to the museum as a kid, I didn’t drive to get there. Boston is a city where the roads were laid out by cows. The paths they made turned into roads that are still there. If the cows didn’t predict cars, or were just mean, is something still debated. But, it means that my first try at getting us to the museum put us on a 1 way road that went by it, but couldn’t get us to the parking lot. So, we went around again, and I managed to get to the parking.
My interests run to history, not paintings. The MFA seems to have similar tastes. We got to see some good (to me) stuff. You have to remember, I am an engineer…
This is a standard set of weights and measures from 3000 years ago.


This is 1 of only 2 known portraits of the construction manager of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. In other words, a civil engineer of a high visibility project of the old world.


This is an Egyptian board game called Senet. I’ve got a set at home. It’s one of the few games my wife will (occasionally) play with me. It looks remarkably like this millennium old one.


I thought this donkey headed cup was interesting. The notes say there isn’t any way to set it down without spilling, so if you use it, you’ve got to finish your drink.


This is a Roman coin from around 30 CE. So, in the Bible story with the “render unto Ceasar” it could have been a coin like this.


This is the head of a god. That’s what it said on the stand. I thought it kind of sad that centuries ago people went to a lot of work to carve this statue to their god. Now it sits in Boston with a sign saying “head of a god”. Too bad the story behind it was lost.


After noon, it started to get crowded and we came home.

I ended up buying a membership so we can go back more often. I guess members can get discount tickets for others as well. So, maybe we can arrange a field trip at some point.
We had a good time. I’m glad we went.
The pictures are all from my cellphone, so not the best. But, it was still a good time.

Comments

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Awesome!!

I remember a few years ago when I was at the MFA, I happened to 'stumble' into a very small gallery that had a collection of Tall Ship models, most of them being authentic (18th century mostly); some were huge models for Rigging, other were profile, hull, and mockup type models, and they had a few "prison" models - made by POW's held sometimes on jail ships - incredibly stunning details.

I think it was a temporary exhibit, as when I returned a while later, I asked where it was, and the attendance were clueless. Sad...

But, I'm sure you'd have appreciated the technical details as an engineer...As well as wanting to play with the models and rigging.

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

I like MFA as they have a wonderful egyptian exhibit. However part of me feels its wrong to have the artifacts so far from their native land. I might never get to Egypt so its nice to look on the face of Rammses II ( really nice statue, personial fav.) but he's not where he belongs.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I felt some of that too. Not so much at the Egyptian stuff as with a lot of the Asian stuff.
I like being able to see it. But, I hope (probably in vain with a lot of it) that it was shared not stolen.

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

It was almost 10 years ago that Laura and I went to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC - but they had a substantial exhibit of Egyptian and middle ages European artifacts and art there at the time. We spent alot of time in the Monets and Manets and Van Goghs, so didn't get to spend as much time at the other exhibits. someday we'll go back, but I have no idea if any of those other exhibits are still there :-(