Art Galore!

We spent much of the day at the Museum of Fine Arts. Andrew had read that they have the largest collection of Monets outside of Europe. So, even though Andrew is not a huge fan of Impressionism, he took me there. Fear not, there was plenty there for Andrew, too.

The museum had a large collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman art. (Sweetie, I took the hedgehog picture for you. It’s an Egyptian vessel of some sort.)

They also had a great collection of antique instruments (plan little bit ahead for this one &150; the instrument room opens an hour after the museum, and closes about an hour before). In addition to some impressive harpsichords and pianos, they had some highly decorated harps and stringed instruments. Of course, I homed in on the case with a saxophone, which is pictured to the right. The other instrument in that picture is actually clarinet.

Of course, my favorite part was the Impressionism room. There were two of Monet’s Waterlilies and a slew of others. In the next room were a few Asian-inspired European pieces, including Monet’s La Japonaise, which I’m not sure I’ve seen before (in books or online, that is, since of course I haven ‘t seen it in person before). That’s the on pictured to the left.

After we left the Museum of Fine Arts, we poked around Boston Common for a while, seeking out some of the Cow Parade” cows.

Our final stop, for a busy, busy day, was a the Museum of Science for Body Worlds. Body Worlds is an exhibit of plastinized bodies. The exibition is touted as “educational”, though I might argue with that assessment. Certainly there was an educational aspect to the exhibit – there were rows of cases containing plastinized organs organized by the system they’re associated with (such as locmotion or digestion). These cases also showed some unhealthy examples of organs, such heart that had gone through a heart attack. And these cases were certainly educational.

However, the crux of the exhibit were the full bodies that were on display. They started innocently enough with just a full body, then one with a man leaning back with his hands behind his head, and one with his arm extended for a handshake. But then they started getting weird. There was a woman in a diving position, but her front and back had been split with her organs standing up in the middle. But that was mild compared to what was to come. In the next room, there was “drawer man”, with random squares cut from his body and then pulled forward or pushed back to expose his insides. The most disturbing one, to me, was “ring man” who was displayed holding onto altheletic rings. He had rings of skin removed from his body and extremities.

I wasn’t creeped out by the exhibit, as I thought I might be (which might be surprising, since it was completely my idea to go, while Andrew wasn’t sure about it). I would quibble with calling it a primarily educational exhibit, though. In fact, I’d call art, albeit with a questionable medium.

Tags: trip report