Berlin: Neuesmuseum, Egypt

More from the Neuesmuseum, Museum Island, Berlin...

Original ceiling decor as one enters the Egyptian section; in the restoration,
much of this was kept; more later

Many beautiful pieces like this

The so-called Berlin Green Man

Whole walls (apparently the pyramids were too large for the archaeologists'
suitcases)

Detail

One of many old frescoes that adorn and lend atmosphere
to the Egyptian section

Ditto

Ditto again

Ancient Egyptian menage a trois?

Pride of the place: its Nephrititi

Berlin: Neuesmuseum, Troy

Later that day we took in some more of the museums on Museum Island, principally the Neuesmuseum. The Neuesmuseum was closed in 2009--and had been since WWII--but recently re-opened after a long but beautiful restoration. We visited mostly the Schliemann/Troy collection (see http://roadeveron.blogspot.de/2010/11/troy.html) and the Egyptian collection (next post).

Gold from Troy VI-VII

"Priam's Gold"  Hmmm...so the "Priam's Gold" we saw in
Athens was fake?

As seen on Schliemann's wife (or not)

More loot from Troy

Ditto

In the larger classical section, the usual busts of famous
persons, including personal favorite Socrates

More cases and cases of famous artifacts

Plaster cast of one of Ghiberti's doors at the Florence
baptistry

Berlin: Gemaldegalerie

We visited the Gemaldegalerie in 2009 and were impressed, though not overwhelmed. At that point we hadn't seen a great number of European museums and certainly hadn't read or seen much European art history. This time I was more impressed. I'm posting just a few favorites and others, probably omitting many more famous works. Despite plundering and looting by the Russians, it is very much a fine museum and world class as far as I can imagine.   

Jan van Eyck, The Madonna in the Church,
1440; incredible church depiction for that
time; PS[2023]...of course anything by van Eyck
is incredible

Lucas Cranach, Fountain of Youth, 1546

Cranach, Altar with Last Judgment (said to be a copy of
a lost Bosch), 1524

Peter Bruegel the Elder, Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559

Rembrandt's Moses and 10 Commandments

Jan Steen, As the Old Sing, So Do the Young (um, my
translation), 1663

Vermeer, The Wine Glass, 1662

Caravaggio?

Masaccio, roundel, late 1420s

Botticelli, Profile of a Young Woman, 1465

Botticelli, Maria mit Kind, 1477 (looks like a sad Venus mit
Kind to me)

Botticelli, Venus, no date, the great Birth of
Venus pose

Berlin: Pergamon Museum

When we visited Berlin in 2009, the Pergamon was closed, so we were determined to see it this time. Of course we visited Pergamon in Turkey (http://roadeveron.blogspot.de/2010/11/pergamum.html) in 2010, and looked for the place of the Altar of Zeus. Pergamon is a wonderful ruin, but the Altar resides now much intact in Berlin, removed by the archaeologists. I really don't know how many museums are in the Pergamon. From the Altar of Zeus, one proceeds to the great gate of the agora from Miletus, another wonderful site in Turkey we saw in 2010 (http://roadeveron.blogspot.de/2010/11/miletus.html). A few steps away and you are in the throne room of Babylon and venturing down its royal boulevard. Upstairs is a marvelous museum of Islamic art, surely one of the largest and best in Europe. As Vicki would say, the Pergamon by itself is justification enough for visiting Berlin. I'll limit the pix to just the biggest and best items.

Altar of Zeus, Pergamon/Berlin)

A model helps to understand the scale, etc.

The scores of friezes are arrayed on the walls around the altar

Thus

A smaller temple in an adjoining room

The great gate to the agora, Miletus

Again, a helpful model; judging from the ostentatiousness, we figure it lead into
the Neiman-Marcus 

Welcome to the throne room, Babylon

More of same

On the royal boulevard (both sides of the hall)

Me

More humongous sculpture

And now in the wonderful Islamic art section; an in-laid wood ceiling, said to
be from Alhambra

Part of a wall with reliefs

And carpets and other stuff...pretty overwhelming

Return to Berlin

From Amsterdam we drove to Berlin, to meet daughter Rebecca, her husband Jeremy, and our grand-daughter Penelope. As noted earlier, we toured with them for the next two weeks, taking care of Penelope so they could enjoy a vacation, and doing a good bit of touring ourselves. Before they arrived, we wanted to take a few days to do the Pergamon Museum in Berlin--closed when we were there in 2009--some others on Museum Island, and then the Gemaldegalerie in the Kulturforum, which we visited also in 2009.

The Grey Wanderer at Wohnmobil Berlin, out in the suburb
of Tegel

We finally got around to installing the decal set of
European countries visited, which we had purchased in
Hamburg three years ago; I think we are better travelers
than decal installers

Rijksmuseum II

The not quite random sample continues...

Van Ruisdael's Landscape with Waterfall;  landscape
painting matured with the Dutch and alas my sample won't
reflect much of their greatness

Claude Lorrain's Harbor View at Sunrise; Lorrain is a
favorite of mine; not Dutch

Rembrandt's very, very famous Isaac and Rebecca, or the
Jewish Bride

And then the Vermeers...

The Kitchen Maid

Even a little street scene

Pieter de Hooch, A Mother's Duty (checking for lice)

The Rijksmuseum is not only about paintings
(although that would be plenty); here, some
exquisite porcelain

Six foot high flower holders

And the incredible doll houses

Detail

And a pretty incredible ship model, Vicki posing for scale