Rainy Sunday Afternoon Museum Trekking

A horse pulls the sun across the sky

Sometimes when you are on vacation, it has the nerve to rain.  Of course, when you live in Las Vegas, a rainy weekend afternoon is something different.  And what are vacations for other than to live life differently?

Rainy afternoons on vacation are perfect for museum trekking.  And for today's museum trekking, I was joined by Frederik, my former exchange student "son" from The Year When We All Had Exchange Students Living with Us.

I would introduce him, but you've already met on a previous post (or in real life)

Museum Destination #1:  The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, to check out the antiquities collection.

Outside the Glyptotek (from the other day when it wasn't raining)

Inside the Glyptotek (where it is decidedly not raining)

Let''s stroll through the dry collection.

This lecture hall is lined with classical statuary.  So, when you speak here, you're always guaranteed an audience.

Behind the stage is a collection of heads.

And one pig, suckling.

Speaking of pigs, here is the head of Caligula.  And he's painted like he's supposed to be.  We think of the Greeks and Romans with their tasteful white marble statuary.  Pshaw.  They were Mediterranean.  They were decidedly not tasteful.  The statuary were painted.  It's just the paint does not survive the millennia quite as well as marble.

This poor guy has a look of horror on his face.  Like he just woke up from having the "naked in public" dream only to discover that he was, indeed, naked in public.

This fellow occupies the sub-Saharan Africa room, which means we are transitioning to ...

Egypt!  Where the greyhound dog was king.  Or should I say, "pharaoh".

But the Greeks and Romans far outnumbered the Egyptians in the Carlsberg collection.

This is me.  In case I've been away so long you forgot.

I would like one of those built into my cinder block walls.  Know any contractors who can do that on the cheap?

But I don't want the dragon there.  That is too skinny and too non-threatening to be an effective dragon.

From statuary, we head to the French art.

And when you put me in a room full of French art, what happens?  What happens?  C'mon, you know this.  My eye is drawn to?  My eye is drawn to?  To who?    My eye is immediately drawn to the works of Corot.  Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot.  That was the first of FOUR Corots I saw in this museum.  Normally a museum maxes out at one or two Corots.  If any!  The Glyptotek had FOUR.  Which means the place was positively lousy with Corot!

A nice collection in a beautiful room.

Rooms, actually.

Wait.  What's that up there?  Top row, second in from the left?  Why yes, that IS another Corot!

As is this.  Some day, when I collect my fee on my trillion-dollar case, I will build The Spretnak and I will fill it with Corots.  I will collect Corots from all corners of the globe so all the Corot lovers can find all the Corot their hearts desire all in one museum.

This was in the painting gallery.  It's a bas relief that has absolutely no resonance with Denmark, even Europe, today.  It's called:  "The Refugees."

Back to the statuary.

You may be wondering, now that we've left the paintings and returned to statuary, why I've only shown you three Corots,

And I really don't have a good explanation.  I thought I photographed all fours.  I certainly intended to photograph all four.  I can only guess that I was so overcome that I forgot to photograph the fourth.

This young man was rendered in metal.

And this statue was, I'm guessing, undergoing repair.

And that is a panther devouring a caiman.  And with that, we shall leave the Glyptotek and head over to the Danish national museum.  Again, no exterior shots due to the inclement weather.  And due to the fact that the street-level view of the National Museum is rather undistinguished, although, like most of Copenhagen, it has a distinctive and beautiful roof.

Viking helmet precursors.  Artsily photographed as you can see the photographer reflected in the subject.

The woman at the front desk was visibly disappointed that I wanted to see Viking memorabilia.  Although I'm sure she gets asked "Where's the Viking s&%!#" a thousand times a day.  But, come on,  When us non-Danes think of Great Moments in Danish History, what do we think of?  The heroic resistance to the Nazis in WW2?  Tycho Brahe or Niels Bohr advancing science in their respective eras?  Bent Fabric hitting #7 on the pop charts with "Alley Cat"?

Vikings.  We think of the Vikings.  There could have been more Viking stuff.  I mean this was cool, but not enough.

This depiction of a horse carting the sun across the sky was from early in the Viking era.

It's not quite horned-helmets and long boats, but it is cool.

As was this view of Christianborg Palace.

But then the museum was about to close, so the rest of Danish history will be saved for another Copenhagen trip.