Museum highlights

I've decided to share some highlights from two museums I've visited recently, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Dallas Museum of Art. These aren't the typical highlights that PR people would point out, merely things that caught my eye as I walked around. The fact that they caught my eye probably says more about me than it does about them. But that's art, right? A dialogue between the artist and the viewer. Apologies in advance for the lo-fi quality.

First, selections from the Detroit Institute of Arts:

Seated scribe. Egyptian, between 1391 and 1353 BCE. I'm familiar with this posture. The guy's back is probably hurting after 3300 years.


St. Jerome in his study. Jan van Eyck. Flemish, ca. 1435. St. Jerome spent time in the desert then returned to translate the Bible into Latin. Sounds like graduate school.


Virgin and child enthroned. French, ca. 1300. With the gesture Baby J is making, I'm surprised the work's not Italian. (Merry Christmas, by the way!)

Now, selections from the Dallas Museum of Art:

Figure of a buffalo (pinetau). Indonesian, 19th century. Hard to tell from the picture, but this figure is about one-inch tall and hence very cute. As we've learned from the Japanese, almost any animal can be made cute (i.e. kawaisa-ed) by endowing it with big eyes and indistinct bulbous features.


Death Seizing a Mother. Kathe Schmidt Kollwitz. German, 1934. This lithograph scared the bejeezus out of me when I first saw it. Whoa, is that a ghost in the reflection?! Oh, whew, that's only me taking the picture.


Stele of Uma-Maheshvara. Central Indian, 12th century. This carving shows the integral relationship between Shiva and Parvati, symbolizing destruction and fertility. And Shiva copping a feel. Hey, who let this filth in here?