It was stunning. There seems to be a superior example of almost every genre available at Harvard, blessed with the largest endowment in the world, and very discerning collectors in its history. I've not visited any museum anywhere that has more greatness in such a small package. We ran out of time, and didn't quite get to much of the 20th century, but we will just have to go back.
A lot of pictures, but worth the look
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| The new building |
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| I was admiring the hanging and asked a well-dressed Asian gentlemen if it was a Calder, and he said it was by a Mexican artist, Carlos Amorales ("Triangle Constelation"); I thanked him, and asked him, jokingly, if he gave guided tours, and he said he could, he was one of the architects of the museum! |
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| Susan in one of the contemporary galleries. A wonderful collection of Mark Rothko, but it was the one gallery no photography was allowed. |
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| Temple relief of Queen Arsinoe II 270 BCE |
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| Tetradrachm (coins) of Athens 449-420 BCE |
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| Hokusai (1760-1849) Minamoto no Yorimasa Aiming an Arrow |
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| Okamoto Shuki (1807-1862) Heron and Kingfisher among Lotus (detail) |
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| Bird Trappers India, Moghul period, c. 1590 |
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| Krishna Playing the Flute India, 13th-14th C. |
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| Folia from a Qur'an Iran, 12th C. |
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| Hexagonal Tile with Floral Patterns Turkey, Iznik, c.1520-40 |
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| And a Botticelli!! The Virgin and Child, c. 1490 |
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| And the only Riemenschneider carving I've seen outside of Germany Saint Anthony Abbot c. 1510 One of the supreme wookcarvers |
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| And an Albrecht Durer (Harvard has a large collection) The Martyrdom, of the Ten Thousand Christians c.1496 |
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| John Singleton Copley John Adams 1783 |
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| This painting was jaw-dropping. The depth and 3-D intensity was in a class by itself. I must find out more about this artist. Jan van der Heyden The Dam and Damrak, Amsterdam c.1662 |
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| And, and, a folio of Piranesi! The Antiquities of Rome Vol ll 1756 |
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| Canaletto Piazza San Marco, Venice c.1730-34 |
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| And a detail of the above. |
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| Finally, a very happy discovery, paintings by Gustave Moreau I remember being fascinated by Moreau as a teen-ager, and buying a book about him. Bizarre, over-the-top, voluptuous. And the Harvard museums are displaying three! Jacob and the Angel 1974-78 |
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| Gustave Moreau The Infant Moses 1876-78 |
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| Gustave Moreau The Apparition (Salome and John the Baptist) 1876-77 This is a tiny painting compared to the other two |
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| I was running out of time, and had to select one more, so here is Claude Monet The Porte d"Amont, Etretat C.1868-69 |
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| One final shot of the tower at Sanders Theatre before we race for the subway. |
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