A bit of art culture

It's a busy week this week. Today one of my former work friends arrived in town for work stuff so we are catching up on the weekend for some shopping, eating and chatting. I will save the rest of the fun for the next few blogs. Today though, I went to the National Art Gallery. All the museums here are FREE which is just incredible. Mind you, some aren't but they are generally private. But the Smithsonians and Zoo are all free. Wow. I'm not a real arty farty person but I do like to wander around and at least try to fathom the wonder in the paintings. I didn't take a tour but should return for one because they usually tell you things about the painting that you don't get by just looking at them. I needed to google some paintings to understand them a bit better, plus I needed to sit down a while after walking the many rooms. So thanks again to wiki for helping me today.

For example, the 15th century portrait Davinci painting below is of Ginevra de’ Benci,  a Florentine aristocrat. The museum bought it for $5 million. The portrait is one of the highlights of the National Gallery of Art, and is admired by many for its portrayal of Ginevra's temperament. Ginevra is beautiful, but austere; she has no hint of a smile and her gaze, although forward, seems indifferent to the viewer. A strip from the bottom of the painting was removed in the past, presumably owing to damage, and Ginevra's arms and hands were lost. Now, The Napolean 1812 painting...Piled on the desk are a pen, several books, dossiers and rolled papers. All this, along with Napoleon's unbuttoned cuffs, wrinkled stockings, disheveled hair, the flickering candles and the time on the clock (4.13am) are all meant to imply he has been up all night, writing laws such as the Code Napolan, the word "Code" is prominent on the rolled papers on the desk. This maintains his new civil rather than heroic or military image, though the sword on the chair's armrest still refers back to his military successes. The fleurs-de-lys and heraldic bees also imply the stability of the imperial dynasty.

A Davinci

Napolean portrait

Right, that's enough art class for today. How about we move to cars. There is an exhibition of Presidential cars during April. This was outside in National Mall - it's President Taft's steam car. It was the first official White House automobile. The only known survivor of the first four automobiles in the 1909 White House fleet. It was capable of speeds in excess of 60 mph, which President Taft enjoyed and encouraged.   I took this other pic of artwork in the gardens. It's a typewriter rubber - if you are younger than 30, you prob won't know a typewriter. It was just clever and caught my attention.

 

Finally a couple of selfies. The dogs were distracted by another dog so they weren't interested in posing nicely for the camera. And the other one is Capitol Hill of course. And check this latest Trump development. I remember seeing one in Chicago - he's like a pissing dog leaving his mark everywhere. A massive TRUMP sign on the old Washington Post Office - very sad actually. It's being developed into a massive hotel. I can't be sure but I'm not sure if tourists will still be allowed to go up top the clock tower - probably not.