ART GALLERY

For our 'President's Day-Valentine's Day' long weekend, to combine our PATRIOTISM and LOVE of art, we went to our nation's Capital and by it's Capitol

to the National Gallery of Art. Daniel, Julia and Andrea went with Dave and I. I like being able to take pictures of the works. I felt like cropping some this time, and just collected my favorite women's portraits.

At the At the Modern Art building next door, we saw the Pompeii exhibit.
In college I studied art for a semester in London at BYU's center, and remember a Pompeii exhibit I saw then. I found it fascinating that the city of Pompeii, Italy, largely populated by the elite of the Roman empire was suddenly engulfed by the lava of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. This preserved things exactly as they were at the time.

An interesting but morbid detail is that archaeologists were able to shoot plaster into cavities in the lava where bodies had been (and have now deteriorated.) However the plaster casts accurately depict the people who were there.

Many artifacts like plaster paintings, tiles, mosaics, marble statues in courtyards and atriums, jewelry and glass bowls show the advanced civilization and love of the arts and lifestyle of the Romans as well as the culture of the Greeks who they conquered.

This is a mosaic of Plato and two closer views. The tiny pieces of colored rock are about 1/8 inch cubes!



Another reproduction depicted a mosaic that involved 1 1/2 million pieces!

Obviously the people of that place and era loved beautiful art, architecture, the Italian agriculture and temperate climate--all things that we value now as well. But it is a reminder to have our lives in order, because we don't know which day might be our last.