Sorel - Maria met Kind
The virgin mary looks like a 9 year old girl.
Bloemaert - Jozef en Zijn Broers (Joseph and his brothers)
This illustrates the "height of Utrecht Mannerism". Unfortunately he still put modern clothes on Joseph and friend - I want to see muscled chests!
There were quite a few paintings of still life. Not surprising given the Dutch tradition.
D'hondecoeter - Orpheus and the animals
Tulip vase in 2 parts
Petronella de la Court's Doll House
This is an exquisite replica of a real house on a miniature scale
Weenix - View of an Italian harbour
Bone ice skate from AD 650-800
There was a section with recent archaeological finds from the Dark Ages.
Utrecht Ship (AD 997)
This was found in 1930. I can't remember if I've seen Sutton Hoo, but this is not bad too.
This eagle adorned the facade of the Utrecht Life Insurance Company HQ from 1901
Chimney frieze, Madonna and Child & 2 figures bearing arms
There was an interesting section with photographs made to look like Old Masters. The photographs were commissioned by the fashion label 'The People of the Labyrinths'.
At the top of the level there was an embodiment of the "museum in a museum" concept - there was a video showing what it was like to walk through the vaults of the museum.
There was a part of the museum called the chapel. It was very strange. Inside it was closer than the rest of the museum, and a strong peppermint smell filled the air. A new age music track was playing and a girl was singing a ghostly song to a moving projection of images.
It turned out that it was installation art by Pipilotti Rist - Expecting (2001). Some items were displayd in the chapel, but I couldn't find any information panels or pamphlets. The smell was enough to get me on a trip, and the place in general spooked me out. It was with a great deal of effort that I stopped myself from running out screaming.
After the Centraal museum, I went to the University Museum, the museum of the University of Utrecht. At the bookshop, there was an issue of a journal on games ("tmg 7/2004 -2"). Most of it was in Dutch, but there was also one article about Doom in English.
The woman at the counter gave me a booklet in English introducing the exhibits, since there were no information panels in English, but I was still unable to figure out exactly what was what, since the exhibits didn't seem to be arranged in the same order they were introduced in the booklet. Actually it wouldn't have helped that much even if I was fluent in Dutch - there weren't any labels or captions in Dutch either, save for short expositions about what was in the cabinets.
The ground floor of the museum had mainly biological specimens, including:
Foetuses in jars
More foetuses in jars
There were photos of skeletons of people afflicted with rickets, and others of infants. I couldn't tell which had which deformity, but my guess is that:
This boy probably suffered from hydrocephalus (excessive cranial fluid, resulting in a big head)
I love the Dutch penchant for captions, which was again evident: "Two hundred years ago, a child with a congenital abnormality was still cheerfully called a "monster"." Maybe this has something to do with the Dutch love for getting straight to the point.
Half the ground floor of the museum was under renovation, so I'll be dropping by again after 9th April. Even if I had no Museum Card, I'd still get free entry since I'm a student of the University.
One level up, there were lots of old telephones and computers. Among other things, I finally saw an Atari 2600 in the flesh (pity it was not on though), the Original Pong from 1972 (it was even uglier than I'd imagined) and a strange Apple poster from 1985/1986 promoting an "Incentive campaign Tunesia". At least on this level most things were labelled.
My guess is that this on the table was one of the first mobile phones
"dag & nacht on-line"
On the top (second) level there were some old microscopes, dental instruments, stuffed and preserved animals. The lack of labelling on this and the ground floor really detracted from my appreciation and enjoyment of the exhibits.
Man and an distant, earlier relative
Last Tuesday it was still cold enough for the topmost layer of ponds to freeze (not cold enough to take my weight, unfortunately, as one layer I pressed down on sunk). Hopefully this means it will be cool in winter.
