A Real Live MUMMY
So far in Boston I have visited two different art museums, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Although the museums were fairly close to each other, I did visit on different days. Both are very accessible from the green line, which was super convenient considering how blistering hot Boston has been lately. Also, something I learned recently is that MIT students get into both art museums for free by just showing their ID, so of course I showed my very much temporary and very much not a student MIT ID and saved some money.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum was established by Isabella Stewart Gardner when she decided to turn her private collection into a public museum. She converted her house into the museum during her lifetime but it has since expanded far beyond that – and by house I mean palace. I really enjoyed the interesting mix of artwork, historical texts, and other antiquities. Although walking through what used to be someone’s house and is now a public museum is kind of strange. One of my favorite parts was the beautiful courtyard garden in the center of her house. Four stories surround this glass-ceilinged courtyard that has beautiful flowers, interesting statues, and an intricate mosaic tile that can be viewed from both the ground and the upper levels. The newer section of the museum housed an exhibit on maps. My first thought was “Oh, how boring – MAPS!” but it was actually a very well thought-out exhibit that traced the development of parks and greenery in major cities. They had several blueprint-like maps of the Emerald Necklace in Boston, Central Park in New York, and the lake shore area of Chicago. Overall was a very worthwhile experience.
The Museum of Fine Arts is first of all enormous and second very well organized. I did not get a chance to explore the entire 3-story museum, but I did try to hit part of each section. The museum is divided into 5 different sections: art of the ancient world, art of the Americas, art of Europe, contemporary art, and art of Asia. I’m not exactly sure which section this was in, but when I first arrived I started in an exhibit of musical instruments from classical harpsichords to the electric guitar. Being a musician myself, I found it especially captivating to see the progression of musical instruments throughout history. I also really enjoyed seeing the ancient Egypt / mummy exhibit. Yes, they have real live mummies! Well… real dead mummies that is. Speaking of strange exhibits, they had this case full of different shaped bottles and vases with mirrors that created the illusion of infinite bottles. The simplicity of an ordinary object like the vases in combination with the mirror effect was quite captivating and my picture definitely does not do it justice.
-Lexy
