Happy birthday, dad! Today we went to the German History Museum in the morning. We were on a tour, but there were so many amazing things in the museum, so I was torn between listening to the woman speak about the objects, and examining all the objects in the museum. The guide skipped over much of the early German artifacts which I found most interesting. The Medieval area was interesting, with lots of examples of ancient suits of armor and old handwritten books which were exquisite and colorful.
There were also a lot of examples of cool, old maps which I enjoyed. The most interesting part to me was listening to the guides personal experience of learning about the situation and the history of the Berlin Wall while she was in school. In seems like the tearing down of the Wall came so suddenly, people were just finally fed up with their situation.
The file photo portraits of Jews who died in the concentration camps were very haunting, something that is hard to forget. I think visiting the concentration camp for class is going to be difficult for me to handle.
After a rest and lunch at the hostel, Sara and I went back to Museum Insel for the Altes National Gallery. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would (finding a Van Gogh didn't hurt)!
While the gallery was mildly confusing, because you couldn't walk one path through the entire floor and see everything (meaning lots of back tracking), I thought the layout was absolutely beautiful, along with the mixture of sculpture and painting.
Hmmmmmm, this one looks familiar! :)
I liked the connection between the architecture and the artworks displayed in the galleries, every space seemed to fit together, and utilize the uniqueness of the architectural elements. The wandering approach seems more fit for an art gallery, though I would have appreciated a little bit more guidance and less back tracking. Also, when we tried to find the Constable to Courbet exhibit, it was completely filled with paintings and sketches by Menzel.
Next stop was the Neues Museum! We were tired after the Altes, so we decided to head straight for Nefertiti and see what happened to be along the way. I plan on heading back when I get my second museum pass. We wandered through the Egyptian exhibit, and my favorite piece was the statuette head of Tiy, mother of Pharaoh Akhenaten. I was so surprised to see how tiny it was in person! I could literally hold it in my cupped hands and it would easily fit. When I learned about this artifact in art history we saw slides of it that made me think it was a full size head. This was one of the most surprising things I have seen in any of the museums so far.
The exhibits were all super state of the art, much more updated compared to Pergamon. The uniformity of the texts and boxes made the museum more enjoyable. I particularly liked the busts of Roman and Greek philosophers, writers, historians etc., in niches and on pedestals similar to how they would have been displayed in Ancient Roman times. After doing a project on the decor of the Villa of the Papyri for a class last semester, I recognized many of the names of the busts. And then from the distance you can see it, the glowing Bust of Nefertiti. This is the best picture I could get of it, sneakily pretending to snap a picture of this random bust.
There were about six guards in the gallery, keeping a sharp eye on anyone and everyone. The bust was absolutely stunning and the way it was lit made it glow with magnificent beauty. I have always been fascinated by this bust, so when I found out it was in a museum in Berlin I had to make sure I stopped by. It was smaller than expected, but the epitome of the spectacle to small object mentality. I was happy to see it either way, though I wish I could have taken a better picture.
Lastly, we saw the half circle of niches with Roman emperors (here is Philip the Arab, one of the Soldier Emperors) and two images of barbarians and Dacians (which were the Germans during Roman times). I thoroughly enjoyed the Neues, and would definitely like to come back to examine some things more closely.
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