Animal Soup

Whenever I look at one of these I think “you see that? You put your weed in there” though apparently these are for soup not weed. Though the real question is what would be put in them? Would the duck one only have soup with duck in it? Then what about the eel? And if duck soup is the only soup in the the duck pot would that be considered cannibalism? Another good question: how would you hold this? Seriously, like some don’t have handles and I’m pretty sure that most of these pots are made out of porcelain which can get extremely hot and soup is usually served hot. Whoever brought the soup out probably had burned their hands more than once and also imagine if someone dropped the pot. That would just be bad for all parties involved like the people who were going to eat the soup don’t get the soup the person who dropped it was probably executed at most and fired at least and the person who had made the pot probably had to make another one

Eel tureen with cover and stand

DATE: ABOUT 1755ACCESSION NUMBER: 2006.900A-C

Tortoise-shaped tureen and cover

DATE: MID-18TH CENTURYACCESSION NUMBER: 2006.902A-B

Creepy Children

Alright, I think we all can agree these children look possessed. Like who decided “I’m going to make these children look like they are possessed?” They were probably fired after that.

And that’s not all. They are also in a boarded up staircase with a mirror above it. So you just look down and the gong is just chilling there. Then you look back up and there is just a mirror there. Also the baby on the left is staring and pointing straight at you. It is terrifying.

The children are made out of bronze by the way if you were wondering. The museum says this is a “Gong Frame with Carved Figures, Early 19th Century.” It is from Japan. In the picture on the museum website (here) you can better see that the frame is made of wood.

Also the reason I don’t post often is because I am a professional procrastinator.

The Facts:

Isabella and the Pot of Basil

So this picture is supposed to be a woman whose boyfriend was killed by her brothers because they didn’t like that she was dating him. So she put her boyfriend’s head in a vase with basil in it.

Okay, I know all people grieve differently, but why put a whole head in a pot of basil? it would have probably been easier to hide the person’s ashes than hiding a whole head. Also if I had siblings that would kill anyone I dated I would be very concerned about my siblings. That seems like a very manipulative relationship to have with a person and would just make make the person whose partner was killed lose trust in the person who killed their lover or get scared of the person.

That sounds very confusing so I’m going to call the person whose lover was killed Jane and the killer Kayden. So it’s a lose lose situation because ether Jane will be scared of Kayden and anyone else Kayden wrapped in to killing his sister’s boyfriend or Jane will lose all trust in Kayden and never go to him if she has a problem.

Also fun fact: the woman in this picture is life sized so she is the size of a full grown adult. So moral of the story? Don’t kill your sibling’s boyfriend just because your overprotective.

The Facts:

  • John White Alexander (American, 1856–1915)
  • 1897
  • Oil on canvas
  • Accession Number 98.181
  • Gallery 228 (Henderson Gallery)

Lime Green Icicle Tower

This thing is so big that it has to be attached to the ceiling so it doesn’t fall over. I bet if you were to grab on to one of the icicle things and pulled it would make the the whole thing shake. DON’T TRY THAT!

I’m pretty sure that if one of my cats saw that she would try to climb it.

I like this piece because it looks cool. :p

The Facts:

  • Dale Chihuly (American, born 1941)
  • 2011
  • Material: Blown glass, steel
  • Museum purchase made possible by a major leadership gift from The Donald Saunders and Liv Ullmann Family for The People of Boston, with additional gifts from Irving W. Rabb, Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn, Penny and Jeff Vinik, Matthew A. and Susan B. Weatherbie Foundation, John F. Cogan, Jr. and Mary L. Cornille, Vance Wall Foundation, Robert and Jane Burke, Mr. and Mrs. J. Richard Fennell, Mr. and Mrs. George D. Behrakis, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald R. Jordan, Jr., Alan S. and Lorraine D. Bressler, Bettina and Craig Burr, Dale A. Roberts, funds donated in honor of Gerald W. R. Ward, Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture (1992-2011), and funds donated anonymously and by contribution from more than one thousand individuals (2011.1634)
  • Gallery 130.9 (Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard)

Musicians

These people look like they don’t know how to play instruments. The one on the left side looks like he has the horn in his mouth, the one in the middle looks like he is playing a clarinet like a flute, and the one on the right looks like he is playing a bent lead pipe. In addition the people in the back look like they are complaining about how horrible the music is. I wanted to write about this painting because it looks kind of funny. I am in marching band so I know what it looks like to play these instruments and it is not the way these people are painted.

This painting is near some stairs. You can see it when you’re on a landing. Sometimes it is easy to see. Sometimes it is not easy to see when the museum is busy because you have to stop on the stairs to look at it and that bothers some people because they want you to keep walking up the stairs. I don’t think most people notice this painting because it is high up and no one looks at the wall when they’re going upstairs except for me. They look at the stairs so they don’t fall on the stairs. I look at the wall when I go up the stairs so I can look engrossed at the paintings.

The Facts:

  • Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo, 1511-1574, Florence)
  • About 1545
  • Material: Fresco
  • Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Second Floor Stairhall & Stairway
  • Collection listing details

Nydia, the Blind Girl of Pompeii

My big sister likes to copy the pose of this statue. The statue is of a character in a book. The book is called The Last Days of Pompeii by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He wrote it in 1834. Nydia saved people from death after the volcano erupted because she could get around the city even when no one else could see from the volcano. She was a hero. When I saw this statue the first times I didn’t know if she did or didn’t die. Now I know she didn’t.

Now unlike some other marble statues, this one is not creepy. You can tell it is a human. There are usually not that many people around it or in the room that it is in so you can really look at it. Her eyes are closed, probably to show that she is blind. The way she is standing makes her look like she doesn’t know where she is going and she looks confused. She looks worried and scared so maybe that’s it instead of confused.

I like this sculpture. I think it is pretty. I think it’s fun that my older sister likes to copy this sculpture. I like the story about the sculpture too. I don’t have a picture of this sculpture, but you can click here to find one. When I looked online I found lots copies of this sculpture in lots of museums so the artist must have really liked the story or he was simpin’ for the character or he was able to sell a lot of them from other people simpin’ for her.

The Facts:

Renaissance Babies

Okay, let’s just get right to the point: Renaissance babies are ugly. Okay, there were a few exceptions, but for the most part Renaissance babies were very ugly especially when it came to painting baby Jesus. Why did they look so ugly? That I have no clue because before the Renaissance and after the Renaissance the babies in pictures looked decent and sometimes even cute though not during the Renaissance. The ceramic ones are kind of cute. The other ones are not.

During the Renaissance we got “fish” baby Jesus and “full grown man but short with no beard” baby Jesus. I don’t think the artists in the Renaissance ever actually saw babies but acted like they knew what a baby looked like. Also I wasn’t posting as much earlier because of school and because I tend to procrastinate, though because school is over for me now I am hoping that I will start to post more again.

Because some of the galleries at the MFA are closed right now for changes I couldn’t take pictures of everything I wanted to since I can’t get to it. But I found some on their website to show my point and my mom had old pictures on her phone.

A fun activity at a museum is to look at every Renaissance painting with baby Jesus and try to find the ugliest baby Jesus. It can be an alone game or a multi player game. If it’s a multi player game you can argue over which one is the ugliest. It gets real heated when you have different results. I hope you try this game and have fun.

  • Virgin and Child with an Angel, Luca Signorelli, About 1470-1475, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
  • Adoration of the Shepherds (?), I couldn’t find it again, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
  • The Nativity, Sandro Botticelli, About 1482-1485, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
  • Altar of the Holy Kinship, German, Saxony, About 1510-1520, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
  • This is a cute baby. Nativity with Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Luca della Robbia, About 1470, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
  • Virgin and Child, Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1425-1450, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Frances Tileston Breese

The picture is very dark except for the parrot. 🦜 The reason that the parrot is bright is because when the kid was posing for the picture the child was getting fidgety, so to keep the child from fidgeting the artist drew a parrot 🦜 in the picture.

My thoughts on the picture is that it would not look the same without the parrot. 🦜 I was surprised the parrot was not actually there since it is very detailed for something that was not actually there. The artist is really good at painting to do that.

The Facts:

  • Edward Steichen (American, 1879-1973)
  • 1906
  • Material: Oil on canvas
  • Private Collection
  • Henderson Gallery (Gallery 228)
This is what the museum says about the painting

Devout Men Taking the Body of Saint Stephen

If you can’t tell by the picture the person that the people are carrying is dead, (oof). He was stoned (people throw rocks at him until he died). To me he looks like that one dramatic person in movies/TV shows because he looks like that one character who fainted all the time.

The painting itself is huge. Like it has it’s own wall in the gallery huge. When it was being restored you could watch them restore it (through glass) but you would only see a few parts at a time.

I really like this painting. I have seen it being restored and then got to see it when it was hung up. When the museum was open I liked to go sit with it.

The Facts:

Judith

Judith is a person who is famous for beheading Holofernes before a battle. There are many different depictions of the beheading of Holofernes. Some have loads of blood, some don’t have blood, some are paintings, and some are sculptures like this. In my opinion it looks like that one person on Black Friday that acts like it is world war 3.

This is made of terracotta like the flower pots. It is glazed. There is glazed terracotta in Minecraft too but it’s not very popular because it’s kind of useless and kind of ugly. It is also hard to make in Minecraft. You get it from the ground in a river, then you put 4 together to make the blocks, then you put it in the furnace and cook it. To glaze it you have to add other things to it. That’s a lot of work for Minecraft.

This sculpture would take a lot of work since it’s painted very precisely. They even went under the sculpture to paint the red on Holofernes’ head where it was sliced off his neck. This glazed terracotta is much better than the glazed terracotta in Minecraft.

Checking out the head from below

The Facts:

  • Giovanni della Robbia (Florence, Italy, 1469-1529?)
  • Italian
  • about 1520
  • Material: Glazed terracotta
  • Gift of Mrs. Albert J. Beveridge in memory of Delia Spencer Field (46.839)
  • Not currently on view due to renovations