Week Six (iii) - Museum Island

Sat 16.2.13:

Susan, Peter, and I began day one of Museum Island at the Bode Museum, which contains an extensive ancient coin collection, medieval sculptures, and Byzantine art. Here are some of my favorite pieces:

In front of the Bode Museum

Princess Diana on a golden stag for the hunt

A 100kg gold coin from Canada

The Mirror Cabinet from Merseburg (1715)

Next we visited the Pergamon Museum, known for classical antiquities, Islamic art, and large-scale replicas of archaeological constructions. Here are the highlights:

 - saw a replica of the Hammurabi Codex (ca. 1790-1750 BCE)

 - impressive architectural feats, such as the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate.

 - lots of Egyptian and Mesopotamian stonework and carvings

Entrance and main steps to the ancient Pergamon Altar

The Market Gate of Miletus (built 2nd century CE, destroyed
in 10th/11th century, reconstructed 20th century)

Sphinxes as gatekeepers

Furthermore, the exhibit on Islamic art was particularly interesting because it was so distinct, featuring floor-length carpets and ornately decorated rooms and altarpieces.

That in Aleppo Once...

These rugs have been salvaged and maintained for centuries

Intricate doorway

After a vietnamese lunch, we visited the Alte Nationalgalerie, known for its 19th century art collections, comprising the Impressionist movement, the Romantic movement, and - as far as we could tell - focused exhibitions of Adolph Menzel and Max Liebermann. My favorites: 

Flute Concert of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci (Adolph Menzel, 1875)

The mantel above the stairwell featured numerous contemporary
notables - here we see Goethe, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. 

We actually stumbled into the room with the Impressionist art by sheer happenstance, so we were blown away to see so many famous paintings!

Renoir's Chestnut in Blossom 1881

Monet's View of Vètheuil-sur-Seine 1880

When the museum announced "15 minutes until closing time," we hurriedly tried to rush through the remaining rooms, but the security guards just moved silently in front of us and pointed at the exits haha.

From there, I sadly don't remember what I did but I'm sure it involved good food and friends or a long night of blogging haha. My final laughable pictures:

No ice cream allowed!

So, uh, who shops here?  We did notice, however, that this
store is next to a McDonalds... coincidence?

Sun 17.2.13:

I arose at 9:30 and grabbed some cheese pastries before heading to Museum Island for day two of our museum blitz. Susan, Shane, and I started with the Neue Museum, which contains several Greco-Roman and Egyptian artifacts, including the bust of Nefertiti! Here are a few of the highlights: 

Carvings on an Egyptian stone tomb

The Berlin 'Green Head' (ca. 500 BCE)

King Seti I with Osiris, ca. 1290 BCE 

(Terence, Lindsay, Julian - I was hoping for a Larry the Pharaoh)

Nefertiti in all her glory

We couldn't take pictures in the Nefertiti exhibit, but we did get to see hundreds of ancient artifacts, jewelry, and tools from that era. The Nefertiti bust was in a room all by itself, naturally; sculpted ca. 1340 BCE and discovered nearly intact in 1912, the bust is renowned for how preserved it is, not to mention Nefertiti's reputation.

The 'Bronze Youth'

Celebratory issue coin depicting Charlemagne
for his coronation

Jackal in the crypt room

Colossal Statue of Helios
(from Alexandria, ca. 138-161 CE)

Next up was the Alte Museum, featuring primarily the Collection of Classical Antiquities. Once more, some pictorial favorites/highlights:

Amphora, ca. 530 BCE, shows the mythical wrestling match 

between Herakles and Theseus for the Delphic Tripod

This fish is the showpiece in a room of 

Scythian gold; it likely adorned a shield 

Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, ca. 40 BCE

    "Pair of centaurs fighting cats of prey" (ca. 130 CE) is one
of the most magnificent Roman mosaics. It was acquired
from Emperor Hadrian's palace in Tivoli.

Around 3, Shane and I (Susan had left after the Neue Museum) headed to the Judisches Museum. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, the museum itself is thought-provoking in its design: shaped like a zigzag and intersected by a straight line, the floor plan featuring numerous 'voids' of empty space. Libeskind says of his architecture, "What is important is the experience you get from it. The interpretation is open." 

The unsettling entrance

View of the slanted floor in the Axis of Exile

One begins by descending an uneven staircase, making me at once feel vulnerable and reflect on how this descent mirrors the Jews' ever-worsening conditions in post-WWI Germany. The lower level features three corridors - the Axis of the Holocaust, the Axis of Exile, and the Axis of Continuity - each of which is on a noticeable upwards incline. To me, this design of Libeskind's represented the omnipresent struggle the Jews faced, and really made me pause and think as I read the personalized accounts of Jews set within the walls. 

My most memorable experience came in the Holocaust Tower, Libeskind's so-called "voided void." A 24m-high quadrilateral space, deliberately unheated and lit only by a slit high in the corner, it reflected (as I interpreted it) the sense of enclosure and despair present in the concentration camps. For a long while, I stood alone in the empty void, craning my neck upwards to peer yearningly at the lone source of light. The metal walls whispered with every step, every sound magnified tenfold. Set intermittently within the floor were numerous squares of a different metal, that creaked ominously with every solemn step. But most despairing was the deafening clangor every time the massive metal door swung shut - as others entered and left, the sound echoed loudly throughout the room for a long second before damping out, but during those echoes, I could feel all hope being leeched out of me. Truly, I felt utterly insignificant and hopeless in this chilly and lonesome hole.

View down the Axis of Exile and Axis of the Holocaust

The slanting columns in the Garden of Exile

contribute to the sense of being off-kilter, 

similar to the Holocaust Memorial

The other two main compelling exhibits were 1) the Garden of Exile, similar in appearance to the Holocaust Memorial, with slanting columns and an uneven ground, which further contributes to the sense of being off-balanced and unsettled, and 2) Menashe Kadishman's "Fallen Leaves" installation, featuring over 10,000 faces within an echoing chamber in tribute to those who died or suffered during the Holocaust.

Fallen Leaves - one can walk across the
faces; the resultant clanging resonates
harshly and hollowly

An example of the off-putting architecture

The Axis of Continuity opened into an extensive exhibition of Jewish history, documenting Jewish culture and artifacts such as:

 - a 10th century facsimile of the Decree of the Emperor Constantine 

 - exquisitely embellished rabbinical crowns

 - works by Jacob Abraham and his son Abraham Abramson, who worked as coiners in Frederick the Great's court

 - pictures and artifacts concerning Albert Einstein

 - interactive dialogues from Jews speaking about life during the Holocaust

72 medals coined by Jacob Abraham and
Abraham Abramson

Unbelievably hilarious and cute!

Footsore and overwhelmed by a full day of museum-going, Shane and I decided we deserved Mustafa's, and I splurged and got two delicious durums :) Afterwards, I headed home, did some work, and slept.