20 minutes in the art museum

Guest entry from Sarah:

I had to visit the Menil Collection to set up a writing assignment for my students, so I brought the boys. We didn’t stay long, and they spent most of the time asking when we would leave. But when they did stop complaining and started looking at the art, they had some interesting things to say. Connor walked around saying “sculpture!” Jamie was intrigued by little bronze figurines of animals with antlers, and wanted to know how old they were and where they came from. He was also pretty interested in the religious art, thanks to his Catholic school education. Both boys stared in some awe at a painting of the crucifixion. Then Jamie saw a Dormition of the Virgin and asked if it was Mary, dead. I was pretty impressed that he guessed right, given how few of my students would have. There were a couple of good “St. George and the Dragon” panels which of course pleased the boys. We also looked at some Fayum portraits, and I was explaining to Jamie that they would get wrapped in with the mummies so the realistic portrait faces would show. At which point Connor piped up in his little voice, “I don’t want to die!” I decided that the Menil had been quite scary enough for the day, even without seeing the Surrealism galleries, and we left.