Visiting London’s
National Gallery of Art with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
On
the first weekend of our visit to London, Laurent, baby Florence, and I took
the Underground to the National Gallery of Art.
We were the first people in line, waiting for the Gallery to open.
Florence
squealed in front of all the paintings and was frustrated when she could not
touch them. The guards laughed and said
she was cute. They gave her some museum
maps, which she immediately crumpled up in her hands and laughed.
After
that, she pointed at paintings and clapped her hands in front of the ones she
liked. It was hard to contemplate art
with an active toddler bopping around in a stroller.
You
hardly need to go to Italy to see Italian paintings when you lived in
London. I like Ucello’s battle scenes of
Medieval Italy. Italy’s Dolce Vita
lifestyle has been hard won.
I
went through the Spanish collection in relative calm. I think the paintings of saints contemplating
skulls in their hands might have frightened Florence.
By
the time I made it to the Gallery’s bookstore, Florence was sleeping.
I
bought some bookmarks as Christmas gifts and several good books that day:
-Cennini’s
Craftsman’s Handbook – he was Italian, but worked primarily in France
-The
Oxford Dictionary of Saints – it is always good to have reference books to deal
with religious art criticism
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
 |
| Ruth Paget Selfie |
