Preview

This essay is about my visit to Walters Museum and a description of the pieces Ankhen-sekmet Entertained by a Harpist (Egyptian Civ.) and Relief with Winged Genius (Assyrian Civ.)

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1477 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
This essay is about my visit to Walters Museum and a description of the pieces Ankhen-sekmet Entertained by a Harpist (Egyptian Civ.) and Relief with Winged Genius (Assyrian Civ.)
Introduction:

Going to the museum is one of my favorite things to do. I just acquired this hobby last year, when I took my first art class. Since then, I have been to many museums in Baltimore, New York and the DC area, however, the Walters Museum is by far my favorite. I looked forward to going again, and reacquainting myself with my favorite art pieces, as well as doing the assignment.

However, the blissfulness I expected from this encounter turned out not to be, as the Eternal Egypt collection from the British Museum was in town, and the museum was crowded with people. After paying the required fees, I headed to the first gallery which had small statues unearthed from ancient Egypt. I really wanted to find similar objects to what we had studied in class so I would have a sound basis of comparison to work with however nothing in the first few galleries caught my eye. There was a sculpture titled 'Unknown Man', that reminded me of the Kore found in Ancient Greece. However, there was not sufficient information to write about it, so I moved on.

The third gallery had a Book of the Dead, divided into three chapters. There was a large crowd around this exhibit, so once again I moved on. The next gallery I came to dismayed me also. No large sculptures caught my eye, and it seemed that I was doomed to fail this project. In frantic distress, I stopped by every single piece, willing some feeling or some logic to take hold of me and compel me to write about it. However, I came up with nothing, everything seemed tedious and normal, and there was nothing unique and special.

I reached the end of the collection, and there was nothing....nothing in the British Museum collection that I thought was worth writing about. In utter abjection, I meandered on through the museum, and I found myself on the second floor. Having been to the Walters several times, I had seen their collection of Egyptian works, but something bid me stay. So I followed the feeling, and finally found the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    For my visual analysis assignment I chose to go visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It has been an extremely long time since I last visited a museum. I took my twelve year old son with me to explore what the museum had to offer. We found the art to be very interesting, educational and unique. There were so many beautiful pieces throughout the museum that it was difficult trying to decide which one I wanted to base my visual analysis on.…

    • 561 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a child, ancient egyptian history was my escape. I would sit under my covers for hours reading books I had recently checked out from my city library about pharaohs, pyramids, and my favorite subject of all, Cleopatra. When visiting The Rosicrucian Museum of San Jose, I felt like a child agin. While touring the many different exhibits, I became more excited and interested one after another. After carefully reviewing over 4 pairs of artifacts, I chose to compare and contrast a predynastic box coffin and a Middle Kingdom coffin. The predynastic box coffin dates back to 3200 B.C.E and is not adorned with any after life offerings or scriptures, while the coffin of Lady…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Latin phrase, “memento mori”, connotes the brevity of life as its message continuously remains apparent in art throughout the centuries. Artists illustrate subjects of forthcoming death in various methods, either subtly with dark color schemes or explicitly with symbolic metaphors. The presence of the human skull, an object synonymous with death, envelops the audience with grim thoughts as they are lead to conclude the demise of the artwork’s subject, or of themselves. Currently on view at the Blanton Museum of Art, Guercino’s Mary Magdalena (c. 1637) and Natalie Frank’s Snow White V (2011-14) overtly depict an image of death, yet both of the artworks’ ambiguous context are not completely distinguishable to the audience.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Art 203 Museum Report

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Museum #2: Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology – University of Oxford (www.ashmolean.org, Oxford, England)…

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Statue of Akhenaten

    • 891 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Statues come in many different forms, sizes, styles, and reasons. After watching our online video and I saw a statue from “The New Kingdom” of the infamous Pharaoh Akhenaten. I was intrigued by the unusual features of this statue. They were unlike the traditional features on a statue I am accustomed to. My research was to find out a little more about this Pharaoh and why he was featured so radically different from the typical statues I was accustomed seeing from ancient times including that of ancient Egyptian tradition. I took a look at some historical facts to see if they may help put the pieces of the puzzle together.…

    • 891 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Art Quiz 1

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The author suggest that we ask ourselves: “What is the purpose of this work of art (and what is the purpose of art in general)? What does it mean? What is my reaction to the work and why do I feel this way? How do the formal qualities of the work-such as color, its organization, its size and scale-affect my reaction? What do I value in works of art?”…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slapstick Research Paper

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages

    My first problem was the ghost of Darius. I think that he came in anger. I had done this miserable thing to my copy of Aeschylus’ Persians – I had given it a fringe of those little yellow flags whose purpose it is to destroy the appearance of any fine-looking book. I had been assigned one of the first papers I'd write here, and I am sure that wanted to hold off for another moment that unspooling experience by scrambling to organize what happily bedevils the highlighting and underlining eye. I made several pages of very neat, probably very pallid notes. The thing I was going to make was due soon. The writing of it had to start now, if not the day before. I felt – and still I feel this way – as though I were sprawled out on the ground, groping at the ankles of people running quick to somewhere I don't know. I am trying to trip something that won't fall, and make it lay still with me in the dirt, where I can't see much of anything, and everything confused.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum, and is internationally famous for its repertoire of art, which has been collected by William and Henry Walters. Founded in 1934, in Baltimore, Maryland; the Walters Art Museum has a range of artwork varying from the Medieval World to the Ancient World. The collection has grown to more than 35,000 objects and is offering 55 centuries of art. The Walters Art Museum mission statement: “The Walters Art Museum brings art and people together for enjoyment, discovery, and learning. We strive to create a place where people of every background can be touched by art. We are committed to exhibitions and programs that will strengthen and sustain our community.” The museum achieves its mission statement because the museum has a lot to offer in artwork to many diverse backgrounds by showcasing many different eras of art.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Palette of Narmer

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages

    [ 2 ]. Kinnaer, Jacques, "The Ancient Egypt Site." The Ancient Egypt Site. 30 June 2011…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Akhenaten - the Leader

    • 306 Words
    • 1 Page

    Egyptology has always been my passion since I was a child. When I first visited the UK in 2000, the first place I wanted to see was Gallery 4 of the British Museum where I met the Sun King, Akhenaten, for the first time. His sculpture the features of an unusual man who sported an elongated skull, a pot belly, and a peculiar set of eyes. The image was different from those perfectly chiselled statues of other Egyptian pharaohs. I was so intrigued that I decided to follow him to his homeland.…

    • 306 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout Egypt, during the middle empire art evolved as a symbol for power and permanence featuring straight lines and powerful figures; as time passed art evolved again morphing from simply representational images of man to the more idealized and anatomically correct style of Roman art. As art became more and more prevalent through the late 3rd and early 4th century’s artists began to focus more on anatomical perfection and realism borrowing artistic elements from other cultures such as the Greeks. Though the artistic styles of ancient Egypt and early Roman art vary widely, the underlying symbolism remains the same. This is clear in both the Egyptian Sculpture Vizier (Figure 1) and the Roman sculpture Bust of and Unknown Man (Figure 2). Where the ideas and concepts of both sculptures are essentially the same, their vastly different styles are evident of the time periods in which they were made.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My visit to the cemetery was very interesting. When I first read the assignment sheet, I didn’t want to visit the cemetery. I thought it was scary to visit a stranger; it turned out to be very fascinating. When I got to Kewanee Cemetery I got the goosebumps all over my body; six crows following me around, watching every step I took. After a while, I was more intrigued about the headstones that I even forgot about the crows. I was curious about their lives and how they might of live in a time of war, but even though, none of them inspired me to write about anything, into I got across Edward Tunnicliff headstone.…

    • 115 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When it comes to ancient art, it is immensely difficult to state that antiquities belong to a certain group of people or the world. In a contemporary example, antiquities have been cheaply smuggled by Westerners from Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt, Iraq, and Syria, and sold in the black market for millions of dollars. Due to the lack of international laws protecting the ancient arts, smugglers can hardly be classified as heroic or villainous people, thus raising several attitudes towards the entitlement of the ancient arts.…

    • 163 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Field Experience

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Within the museum you’re exposed to over 30,000 artifacts and several exhibitions that were primarily set out for individual pieces of African American history. It made me feel like I was taking a closer encounter with history and the importance of the African American culture and life. Every exhibition had its own feel to it, and its own relevance, with each display and individual storyline, made it all the more very special. I think with every exhibition, the intention was to make people feel like they were truly once a part of that time and age. Although, it’s difficult to imagine any more of what lies in the roots of African American history and life, I…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial Bias

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When our class visited Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall I felt as if this would be a hard assignment because I felt as if none of the artwork would catch my attention, seeing as I’ve never had an interest in artwork while growing up. This visit was really eye opening because not only did I enjoy the time we spent there, surprisingly I was actually interested in some of the work that was being displayed at that time.…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays