A Day at the Museum

One of the many many perks of being a student here is that we get into museums freeeeee. I took advantage of this one Saturday and popped into the Musée des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts). It takes up one largish floor in the Palais Rohan, the palace a few footsteps south of the cathedral which has room for three other museums and museum offices.






















The view from the courtyard.

From the second floor, you can peek out the windows! My camera and I took advantage of this to see the cathedral . . .










. . . and the courtyard of the Palais Rohan. (That’s the cathedral still in the back of the picture, to be clear.)

I had decided to call it a brain-free Saturday, so on this visit I just strolled around, looking into all the shadowy corners of the paintings and staring back at the many Madonnas who looked out tranquilly. I also did a lot of laughing out loud!--one room in particular has multiple illustrations of Genesis, which allowed these medieval fellows to show off their scientific knowledge. Which is precisely what made me laugh! The kinds of fishes, birds, and mammals they imagined or recreated are just fantastic.

I was so enchanted by many of the paintings that I returned the very next day with drawing paper and pencils.


Here is one of the oddball animals, an excerpt from La création des oiseaux et poissons, after one by Martin de Vos. This fish needs braces but seems quite happy without them, because he also has wings.










In the same tableau we find an ostrich with a slight smile, standing at attention at the right hand of God.















Melchior Bocksberger is responsible for the excellent and jam-packed La création du monde, a ginormous canvas which contains most of Genesis. One of my favorite bits is this little skeleton who waves its arms at a little Adam and Eve as they sadly leave the Garden. Here is a hydra for you, who sits on a hill beneath a falling Lucifer.





And here is a little parrot, who is perched on a branch above a few deer, elk, and buffalo, in Roeland Savery’s Paysage de fôret avec animaux.


More drawings to come later.