The Walters Round Two

 We went back for a second week at the Walters, this time for their Medieval and Japanese collections.  I forgot my camera, so these pictures were taken with my phone.

We went through The Knight's Hall, a beautifully furnished recreation of, well, a medieval knight's hall!  The Zoomlians played chess and checkers there.

Coming out, they have these sculptures representing the four evangelists.  Since I happen to know four people with those names, I had them pose beneath their symbols.

 I handed out cards from their family guide, and all the Zoomlians found their artifacts.  Here is Klenda with the (nearly a thousand year old) Eucharistic dove (an early type of tabernacle) on her card.

One of the high lights of this section is the 1500 year old Mass kit.  I had the kids take a look at it and identify all the sacred vessels we still use today!  The biggest difference was that the paten (plate) was much larger back then because they were using  full loaves of bread.

 I could have spent hours going through this part of the museum.  The art and artifacts are really relics from the age of Faith.  To me, every detail still sings with the love and devotion of those who made them - even more so than the more technically perfect Renaissance artists. 

There's a gritty reality here, especially in their portrayal of a God-Man who suffered for us.  Here is a culture intimately familiar with suffering, contemplating the One who redeemed that suffering.  It's more beautiful to me than the paintings which gloss over and touch up the uglier parts of life.  Those are the parts where we need God the most.

I had never been to the Hackerman house (where the Asian collections are kept) and I was totally unprepared for the astounding beauty of the house itself!

It was like being swept into a Jane Austin novel.
Here you see Mxyl at the bottom of an elegant sweep of stair crowned with a beautiful stained glass dome.  The stained glass (in sunlight) was too much for the phone camera, but it's in the center above all that lacy plaster icing.

 Of course, we were really there to see the swords...

But Choclo found an entire cabinet of carved wooden praying mantises!

 These collections are housed in turn of the century rooms outfitted as the home of a wealthy collector of Asian curiosities.

In this room, Klenda is photographing some cerulean porcelains.

I'm not sure what it says about me that I was more impressed with the drapes and the carved moldings than the porcelain, but I was!

Each room seemed more lavish than the last, but, finally, it was time to head for home.

But first, a quick visit back to the Family Art center.

Did I mention last time that they have a ton of dress up stuff there?

Mxyl tried on a chain mail coif and plate helmet (the hauberk was off limits)  He actually found them a manageable weight!

Choclo went the nifty fabric model and seemed just as pleased!