So many things have happened since my last blog. Even though i have started to write some but haven't been able to complete them, plus there are so many other travel blog series i started and posted the first one,but haven't been able to add to it that it seems almost futile to start another of those series.
But the highly optimistic streak in me keeps on telling me that its the right way to go. So i find myself staring at another defeat of logic against my whimsical idiosyncrasy. Anyway, making the best of the situation i made some small ground rules to make the thing go faster, but from my past experience i have learned that some how my mind is programmed to break the rules...hehehehe.
So to start off i drove to my sisters place in my Black Volkswagen Jetta (very nice car but the upkeep is back breaking..:( ) on Dec 24th' 08 afternoon. The drive was quite uneventful apart from the fact that i got the car back from the service station in the same afternoon. On 25th went to my BIL's sister's place and spent some quality family time. We also watched a Hindi movie "Golmaal Returns" which was full of cheesy jokes , but since i have lost my sense of enjoyment of Hindi movies it was little bit of a bother but luckily there were just 2-3 songs and they skipped the songs, so was not that bad. As we watched the sunset in their backyard while sipping tea and munching on some Indian snacks, i felt sad to be living far away from family.
But the highly optimistic streak in me keeps on telling me that its the right way to go. So i find myself staring at another defeat of logic against my whimsical idiosyncrasy. Anyway, making the best of the situation i made some small ground rules to make the thing go faster, but from my past experience i have learned that some how my mind is programmed to break the rules...hehehehe.
So to start off i drove to my sisters place in my Black Volkswagen Jetta (very nice car but the upkeep is back breaking..:( ) on Dec 24th' 08 afternoon. The drive was quite uneventful apart from the fact that i got the car back from the service station in the same afternoon. On 25th went to my BIL's sister's place and spent some quality family time. We also watched a Hindi movie "Golmaal Returns" which was full of cheesy jokes , but since i have lost my sense of enjoyment of Hindi movies it was little bit of a bother but luckily there were just 2-3 songs and they skipped the songs, so was not that bad. As we watched the sunset in their backyard while sipping tea and munching on some Indian snacks, i felt sad to be living far away from family.
sunset from the backyard in Chesterfield, near St. Louis, MO
We left after having dinner and chit chatted some more. Luckily i had my GPS with me, which even though is slow to "recalculate" ,at least makes sure we reach home eventually :D. The closing down of the I-64 for 3-4 miles near my sister's places makes it a nuisance to move around as i have to switch of the highway avoidance in the GPS for the part of the way or completely.
We were planning to leave next day 26th Dec'08, evening (as my BIL had to go to work) and stop near Columbus, OH for the night before driving on to Philadelphia, PA next day. For information's sake the drive time to Philadelphia is little bit more than 14 hours and Columbus is almost in the middle.
We were planning to leave next day 26th Dec'08, evening (as my BIL had to go to work) and stop near Columbus, OH for the night before driving on to Philadelphia, PA next day. For information's sake the drive time to Philadelphia is little bit more than 14 hours and Columbus is almost in the middle.
Since there was nothing much to do in the morning i decided to go to the St Louis Art Museum, in Forest Park quite close to my sister's place. Forest Park, which says it is the bigger than Central Park is very nice place with winding roads and bridges and small ponds or fountains. Since it was in winter the trees were bald and were not much of a view but my sister tells me that the park is very nice in fall.
I probably did half of The Saint Louis Museum as its not a big museum (the biggest ones in US so far encountered by me is MET in NYC and the Art Museum in Philadelphia; Chicago is smaller but its artifacts are of the same level as the other two), but it still has some good artifacts in patches.
I probably did half of The Saint Louis Museum as its not a big museum (the biggest ones in US so far encountered by me is MET in NYC and the Art Museum in Philadelphia; Chicago is smaller but its artifacts are of the same level as the other two), but it still has some good artifacts in patches.
Head of Christ, French or Flemish,1500-50
Head of St. Roch,French,late 15th century
St. John the Evangelist,German,c.1500
Diptych with Virgin and Angels and the Crucifixion,French,Ivory,c.1340-60
Augustus Saint-Gaudens:1859-1907,American, Bronze,"The Puritan" ;c.1899They have some good painting from the masters like Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne etc , but just on of each. But the big (covering a entire wall) by Monet is their centerpiece. The simplicity with which Van Gogh makes his painting (without putting much paint, sometimes you can see the bare canvas below) , but depicting the scenario or expression with the strokes is absolutely astonishing.
Claude Monet;1840–1926,French, "Water Lillie's",c.1916-26
Vincent van Gogh;1853–1890,Dutch, "Stairway at Auvers",c. July 1890
Pierre-Auguste Renoir;1841–1919, French, "The Dreamer",c.1879
Paul Cezanne ;1839–1906,French, "Bathers",c.1890-92I am very meticulous about giving proper captions to pictures in put of artifacts from museums even though it takes me a hell lot of time to find all the details. But i spent a lot more time in for these stuff as they don't have a updated collection list/catalog on their web page (www.slam.org) which is surprising but quite expected as they definitely don't have the financial power the big museums got. So i found myself spending countless hours painstakingly going through each entry of their catalog twice before i proclaimed them not having an updated list. So, if you see artifacts not marked up,its just because i didn't find the exact detail of it, but they are all from St Louis Museum.
The have some good Asian (mostly from Chinese origin) stuff and just couple of Indian sculpture (an ardahnariswar and one nataraj, both probably from the Chola period). The mask below is one of their flagship artifacts and is on their flyer's but not on their online catalog (which is bad as per me)
"Decorative Applique",Chinese(Western Zhou dynasty),Bronze,1050-771 BC
"Decorative Applique",Chinese(Western Zhou dynasty),Bronze,1050-771 BC
"Wine Vessel",Chinese(Western Zhou dynasty),Bronze,late 11th century BC
"Grain Vessel",Chinese (Eastern Zhou dynasty),Bronze,first half 6th century B.C
"Guanyin",Chinese(Northern Song dynasty),Wood,11th century
"Covered Censer in the Form of a Lion-Dog",Chinese, Yuan Dynasty(1279-1368 AD) or Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD),Bronze with gilding
"Usnisavijaya" (in the back), Tibetan,Bronze,19th century
"Bust of an Unknown Man",Roman,Marble,A.d. 160-180
"Reclining Pan"(in front)attributed to Francesco da Sangallo(1494–1576),Italian, Marble,c.1535"Judith and Holofernes"(Rear front);Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574),Italian, Oil on Panel,c.1554
"St. John the Baptist"(Rear back);Michele Tosini(1503–1577),Italian, Oil on Panel,c.1570
"Powder Tester";Picino Frusca (1640–1704),Italian,Gilded bronze, steel, and wood,2nd half 17th century
"Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland";Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706–1775)German, Porcelain and bronze with gilding,c.1736
"Corn Set";Russel Wright (1904-1976),American,Chrome plated glass and brass,c.1934
The museum also had a lot of contempory and modern art, but me not being a big fan of thoose , so concentrated on the other stuff, but will cover them on my next visit. I think the major section i missed this time is the african artifacts and portions of the european stuff along with american and native indian art.
It was nice to see many people in the musuem as i strongly belive on can not proceed in present and future properly without knowing ones past (and i am saying it in a very broad sense, meaning not my immediate past as an indian, but my entire past as a human being).
Anyway after i came back from the museum and resrved a hotel for the night, we had to wait till 5:30 pm before starting off as BIL couldn't come back early enough as he had hoped. On our way to the hotel "Days Inn" on I-70 near columbus, OH we stopped at Denny's (as per my plan to introduce to my sis and BIL to all the food joints..:D). But i can promise you my sister is not going to enter another Denny's anytime soon..lol!!..as its was beyond too greasy in her view. we reached our hotel around 2PM as they are one hour ahead of us :(. The hotel was nice for the price and we had a good nights sleep before starting the next leg of out journey in the morning, but that's a different post (keeping my fingers crossed that it will be the next one, and not become the first entry of a series blog like so many others before it).
P.S: added two ancient Chinese artifact details :D (Jan 14th 2009)
Copyright@ 2008 Rahuljit Pal
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