Museum Tours part 1

Philadelphia Museum of Art (now the Philadelphia Art Museum)

Tomb Effigy of a Recumbent Knight from the Abbey of Sainte-Maria, 1230-40

I quite literally grew up in this museum. My parents couldn’t afford babysitters for date nights, but the art museum had free Wednesday night events, with live music and drinks.

As soon as I could walk they would loose me in the art. Lucky for them, I had habits.

Eduard Charlemont, The Moorish Chief, 1878

They would find me here, with “The Moorish Chief.” To this day it is the first painting I go to when I visit. I didn’t even know this was a lifelong habit until I took my mom to the museum in college. I told her there’s this one painting I have to go to first. She said laughing that she could bet which one it was. I was sitting with him when I unknowingly went into early labor with my son. For this and more, I quote him as my favorite painting.

Otto Friedrich, Fugato (from Rhythmen), 1913

While I have visited this museum a thousand times in my life, I still get lost and I still find new works in the collection. I saw this piece by Otto Friedrich for this first time in 2023. The color, the tension, the fever it imbues is palpable. The title means from the cycles of rhythm.

Cloister with Elements from the Abbey of Saint-Genis-des-Fontaines, 1270-1280

I love this museum in particular, for it allows you the sense of traveling around the world. The closest to teleporting I may ever know. I’ve thrown wishing coins into this cloister as if standing in Southwestern France.

Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion, around 450-75

I’ve walked through preserved statues and temple columns of Uttar Pradesh in India, a dream place to visit to this day. I’ve wandered fully constructed Japanese tea houses and sat beneath a giant wooden dragon and intricate miniature village carvings of a Buddist temple, transported by square foot sections across land and sea and restored inside the museum. I know there are controversial implications of colonization relevant to museum artifacts on display away from their home country. As a Philly kid, this is still the closest I’ve gotten to experiencing international travel. Though my passport is ready, just in case.