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November 13, 2006
Best thing I saw in DC? Well, it wasn't Shear Madness . . .
Run don't walk to the National Gallery for Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych.
The diptychs are splendid - lots reunited for the first time in years, some artistic divorces presented (panels that have been mistakenly joined by modern collectors and museums), and everything clean and shiny. On a pedantic note, I saw the backs (or exteriors, I suppose) of lots of them for the first time - and even the ones I had seen photographs of are almost always published in black and white. I was thrilled to see them in color! The best exterior? A 5 Wounds of Christ (and now I can't remember its interior). The best topical everyday life detail I'd never seen before? An exterior showing the cell of a Cistercian abbess c. 1500 with a wall clock in the corner!
The show opened yesterday and is up through early February (curses - not through Spring Break!). The Suspicious Cheese Lords, a group frequently promoted by Fr. Jim Tucker, concertized yesterday for the opening. I wish I could have heard them!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at November 13, 2006 7:51 AM