Several weeks ago, I left my kids with a friend for a couple of hours and treated myself to two hours at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. This museum is incredible. It’s immense, the collections are beautiful, and, astoundingly, it’s absolutely free. It’s not even fake free, like the zoo. No collection boxes, no guilt. You just walk in and enjoy. And I did. I hardly saw any of it, even in two hours. I saw nothing of the modern art wing, and really very little of any of the other collections. But I did spend about 20 minutes admiring this:
I knew they had this bust—“Veiled Lady,” sculpted in marble by Raffaelo Monti. It was truly amazing. I don’t know how such delicacy can emerge from stone. Some of the places were so thin that the light shone through. I loved it.
I wish I knew more about art in general. I took Humanities 101 at BYU, which would’ve (and probably did) given a nice overview, but there’s an inherent problem in that course. My section met at an unfortunate post-Morris-Center-lunch 1:00. It was held in an anonymous auditorium in the JKHB, full of soft chairs. The lights were always turned down low (the better to view art and listen to music), and the professor had a low, droning voice. All the pieces were in place for me to take a healthy afternoon nap three days a week. I probably wasn’t asleep as much as I remember, but I think it’s telling that when I was studying for the final exam, I fell asleep on my book. It’s the only book I sold back to the bookstore with my dried drool holding the center pages together.
It’s also possible that I remember so little about Humanities 101 since I took that class TWELVE years ago, if that number is even possible. Twelve. Regardless, I like going to art museums. Now when I get tired, I can just go home.
4 comments:
I can almost imagine the translucent marbled veil in my mind. I'm so glad you love museums. I'm so glad that in spite of your sleepy Humanities's 101 class, you were blessed with an inherent appreciation for all things beautiful.
Oooo, I love the veiled lady - that is beautiful. Thanks for sharing the pic!
I think the veiled lady was in rome when I was there like 20 years ago (that's a scary number) and I remember it impressed me more than anything else I saw including the david... I always wondered how you would begin to sculpt something like that, it was beyond comprehension
scratch that it was florence, still 20 years ago :(
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