Yesterday (Monday) we had class in the morning, and then I devoted my afternoon to museums: the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, and the British Library. I had assignments in Shakespeare and my literature class to go see some paintings (I put pictures I found online of them here). It was just SO cool to see these famous paintings that I've seen for years in textbooks and on PowerPoints in class in real life.
National Portrait Gallery
(Queen Elizabeth)
National Gallery
(Erasmus)
("The Ambassadors"- the cool thing about this painting, is do you see the weird distorted shape on the bottom? It's a skull, and although it looks weird from the front, if you go around to the right side next to the wall and look at the painting, it looks normal)
British Library
This was definitely my favorite part of the day. The British Library has an exhibit with a bunch of original books and manuscripts: the Guttenburg Bible, the first Shakespeare folio, an ancient Chinese acupuncture chart, the Magna Carta, a Wycliffe Bible, manuscripts of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hardy, Wordsworth, written out song lyrics of the Beatles, and my favorite part: music manuscripts of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Mendlessohn. I spent most of my time studying the manuscripts, and to be completely honest, I kind of got emotional. I'm so grateful for music, the power of music, for these composers who wrote what they did. I miss having so much of my life devoted to music.
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