As a historical novelist I have my favorite eras, but I love history across time. I’ve always wondered. What was it like? How would it be to live in another time and place? So when I visited my kids in Kansas for Thanksgiving and my daughter Christiane had a faculty meeting right across the street from a museum, my grandkid Aspen and I opted to visit it while Christiane attended her meeting. Christiane is an Associate Professor of Animation at Kansas City Art Institute. I had no idea what an amazing exploration of history we were about to enter at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Knights in shining armor offered a show stopper right at the beginning. I should have asked Aspen to stand close by to give an indication of size. But the knights displayed are big men. The horse was massive, despite the appearance of dainty hooves. I grew up with a good-sized horse, but this horse would have towered over her. This was a model, of course, but illustrated the size required to function under all that metal.
From knights in armor we swept way back in time to this figurine, which may have represented the Mother Goddess worshiped across Europe and into Asia from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. This one, created in marble, is in the museum’s Greek collection from the Cyclades, mid-third millennium B.C. The museum literature suggests that due to the sexual emphasis the figure may have represented fertility. Since such figures are often found in tombs it might have been placed there to help the dead reach the next step in life’s continuing cycles, that of rebirth. I present similar beliefs in my upcoming stories of ancient Ireland and Crete. So I was excited to see this.
From the Cyclades of Greece we went to ancient Egypt to visit numerous sarcophagi and an actual mummy, with quite an amazing display of ancient Egyptian art.
And Asian art. See the Guardian Lion below. Another picture I should have taken with Aspen nearby to show its size. I’m guessing he’s about five-foot tall. He’s from the Tang Dynasty, probably around 681 A.D., made of gray limestone. He’s impressive. If you take a close look you may see the graffiti carved into his legs. Even back then.
There was so much more. Fine displays of Native American art. Exquisite paintings. Pottery. Chinaware. It was an afternoon well spent.
