its not stealing if you won the war

Today I started out at the National Gallery to hit up some Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the like. you know, the famous ones. hahaha. and sure they are great, actually the vermeer were very disappointing and lacking their bright light familiarity, but my favorite was a Jan Van Eyck painting entitled The Arnolfini Portrait. this is supposedly a marriage painting, and mrs arnolfini was probably not actually pregnant but it was a painted that way for future good luck. in between the couple is a mirror reflecting two more people in the room, and around the frame are 12 scenes from the passion. take into account that this painting is no more than 20x16" and that mirror is incredibly impressive.



after that it was time for a group field trip to the British Museum!! our guide reminded us that this was the world's largest antiquities collection, and that none of the stuff had been 'stolen'. it had all been 'acquired', and therefore will not be given back. ever.
my dream of touching the Rosetta Stone was crushed however because they have it under glass now. I guess I wasnt the first person to have that great idea. but hey, maybe you can find my reflection in the glass!




it turns out the Rosetta stone was not written at three different times as a translator. it was written all at once in the three languages to make sure everyone in the area would be able to read it. apparently it is propaganda by some egyptian priests saying how much they like the new king Ptolemy (hoping that by saying they like him, they will get to keep their power)

but for your learning pleasure this is how hieroglyphics work.




and then we saw mummies! the guide really made us realize that these are real people who lived and breathed at one time, and now they are museum exhibits. that made me feel really bad about looking at them. I was thinking about how horrified we would bein today's society if someone put a dead body on display. just go to the cemetary, dig up someone's loved one, and put him in a museum as a spectacle for people to look at and take pictures of, without caring about who the person was, or what their beliefs about being exhumed might be. I totally just felt voyeuristic. I don't think I will really want to go look at mummies again.

however...
here are the pictures I took of them anyway. (but I feel really bad about it!)





and also, since this was a group field trip and we all had a moment on the steps of the museum, I was able to get a group photo!! yay! 50 people all cooperating to make a great pic!



I am in the upper left in front of the guy in the black and white shirt, just my head is visible. cool innit?