Pop Goes the Artist!

While I was at the National Gallery of Art the other day to see the “Prayers and Portraits” exhibit, I also had to stop by the galleries containing pieces from the museum’s late medieval collection. I prefer earlier medieval art to later, but what I love most of all is medieval sculpture. Something about the rounded, simple, and slightly stylized forms captivates me. The NGA doesn’t have a huge collection of medieval sculpture (probably about ten pieces on display), but by far my favorite piece is the one pictured here, a fifteenth century English rendition of St. George slaying the dragon, carved in alabaster and painted. I love the way the curves of the dragon’s tail fit beneath the belly of the horse and the way the curve of the horse’s neck matches the curve of the dragon’s. It’s a compact and elegant piece, despite the broken pieces. Even though it represents a scene of action, there’s a certain stillness about it that I find very attractive.

The statue on the right is from a medieval museum in Paris. I don’t remember which museum, however, or even what it’s a statue of (monk? mourner?) because I lost the small notebook in which I wrote down all the info about titles and artists and museums. (And no, I still have not renamed and sorted and Internet photo album-ed all the photos I took. Whoops.) Anyway, I do remember that this particular statue was pretty small–maybe six inches high. I was struck again by that gorgeous stillness, which in the case of this piece is due largely to its symmetry. I’d love to know the context for this piece, because I doubt it was meant to be seen all by itself.

And finally, my favorite piece of medieval art ever: Ye Olde Medieval Towel Bar. I am not making this up: the lovely lady pictured on the left is, in fact, a towel bar. From the Middle Ages. I saw this gem in the same museum as the monk above and was captivated. I mean, of all the things you expect to be preserved for six centuries, a towel bar would be near the bottom of the list. It’s an interesting glimpse into everyday life. And it makes me giggle. A lot.

(All photographs are my own.  You can click the thumbnails to open them larger and in a new window.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Museums, Art I Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.