T Stands For You've Seen His Work But Don't Know His Name

After the cemetery siting, Teague had found some information on a small museum in the center of Arlington. Parking in Boston and environs can be a bear and expensive. Fortunately, Arlington had a municipal parking lot for 50 center per hour of parking and steps away from

The museum was housed in the 

 Jefferson Cutter had been a prominent mill owner. The house was moved to the current site to be used for the Cyrus Dallin Museum

Hand-carved door.

The Cyrus Dallin Art Museum was such a find. It's not a well known destination so not many people there on the day we visited. We got a private tour from one of the founding board members as the regular docent had called in and wasn't able to take a shift.  James thoroughly enjoyed his job of promoting Dallin's art and the museum. He also had some great stories.

I had no clue who Dallin was, but I was familiar with this iconic work. 

The Appeal to the Great Spirit (1909)

This statue is at the entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I've driven by it or walked by thousands of times, but thought it was done by Daniel Chester French or Augustus St. Gaudens, two other prominent New England artists.

If you've visited Plymouth, Massachusetts, you've seen the statue of Massasoit.

If you seen or been to the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, Utah or driven along Route 2 in Belmont, Massachusetts, you've seen Dallin's The Angel Moroni

 Cyrus Dallin came to Boston from Utah. As his fame as an artist grew, he was contacted by members of the Mormon Church to sculpt the angel for the steeple of the temple. Dallin refused saying he wasn't religious, didn't believe in angels and other numerous excuses.

The church leaders turned to Dallin's mother. As a young woman, she had been promised as 27th wife to Brigham Young while traveling by wagon train to Utah. She had met a young man, fell in love, didn't want to marry the older Young or be his 27th wife. The young couple left the wagon train, got married. I wasn't sure in the narrative whether Dallin's mother remained a Mormon after rejecting Young. Anyway, Dallin did the sculpture because of his mother's request.

Out of all the beautiful statues and paintings (he was quite accomplished as a painter, too. Having studied art in France and having some of the French impressionists as companions) This was my favorite piece. Of course. 

Dallin had been working on a sculpture of his 3 sons. You can see a photo of the sculpture behind the cat. The  youngest, Lawrence, age 6. Didn't like sitting still for the composition. After an hour or so he bolted from the studio with the request to sculpt the cat. According to James, the cat statue was on the dining room table when Lawrence returned from playing outside. 

In the photo, the older brother has his hand resting lightly on his middle brother's shoulder, but has a firm grip on Lawrence to keep him from running off while the statue was finished.

I was shocked to learn another iconic sculpture in the city, Paul Revere was done by Dallin. It took some 70 years for Dallin to get recognition for his work. Originally done as a competition, there was some sort of politics that played into the prize money not being given to Dallin as he was an unknown artist at the time. I also suspect that the Boston Brahmins didn't want to award the prize to Dallin as he was also not originally from Boston or New England. We Bostonians can be such snobs.

Undeterred,  Dallin went to Paris to study art, won another sculpture competition, and became an internationally known artist.

There were four other poses of Revere before Paul Revere, No. 5 was chosen. The title reminded me of the House of Chanel's perfume, Chanel No. 5. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the Revere statue.

After visiting the museum we were hungry for lunch. James had told us there were lots of restaurants in the area. We didn't have to walk very far along Massachusetts Avenue

Most of the restaurants we saw served foo-foo food. I'm not adventurous in my eating, and I don't like hot and spicy.

We ended up at a small pizza shop. Teague had a root beer, and I had water. I would have preferred an ice tea, but the selection was fruit flavored, and I thought would have a lot of sugar. I wanted to try not to go too far off the Keto rails.

We ordered a small, plain cheese pizza and could watch it baking in the fire, brick oven.

Pizza with its traditional crust is not Keto friendly (Keto is no carbs, no grain (wheat, rice, rye, etc.) but it was sooooo good.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Matisse

While at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Nan and I also went to see the Matisse exhibit. Fascinating because besides displaying Matisse's art, the objects he used in his paintings were also on display. Matisse loved the objects (chocolate pots, vases, furniture) he had. Often having them brought to him when he moved around.

I liked the color study

It wasn't enough for him to paint still lifes. Sometimes, he had to sculpt the object he wanted to paint

I found a teacup. At least, I think it's a teacup.

Across from the American Cafe which was too crowded for us to have lunch, is the Lime Green Icicle Tower (42.5 ft x 7 ft or 13 m. x 2.1 m.) by Dale Chihuly, an American glass sculptor.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands For Botticelli

Art accessories for my outfit. A Starry Night scarf with a matching bangle bracelet. I couldn't decide whether to wear the matching Starry Night socks or the Botticelli Venus. So I wore one of each.

My friend, Nan, (formerly A.) mentioned during our Skype session if I would like to go to the MFA to see the Botticelli exhibit. I told her if we were going to see the exhibit, it would have to be soon as the exhibit was closing on July 9, 2017. We made plans to meet in town (Boston) on Friday. The Commuter Rail which I was taking and the Orange Line on the T (subway line) crossed at Back Bay Station in the Copley Square area of the city. Across the street is Copley Place, an upscale mall. We arranged to meet in the Au Bon Pain, a cafe around 9 AM. We could sit and chat before walking to the Copley subway station to catch a trolley to the museum. The MFA opens at 10 AM.

Waiting for the E Line - Heath St. trolley at Copley Station

Waiting for the MFA doors to open

Botticelli. This way.

According to the PBS production Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, "Botticelli" was a nickname given to Sandro by an older brother who raised him. Botticelli means "Little Barrel" Alessandro Filipepi, must have been chubby as a little fellow. I think it's cute, and the nickname stuck.

Virgin and Child, Filippo Lippi,

Botticelli apprenticed under Filippo Lippi. I wonder if the clam shell in Botticelli's famous painting of The Birth of Venus was inspired by the shell surrounding Mary and her child.

Paintings by other contemporary artists were also on exhibit.

The exhibit was crowded so it was hard to get close enough to take pictures. Waiting for the crowds to move away, was worth the wait. Here she is, Venus. Just beautiful.

 The exhibit was subtitled The Search for the Divine. In his early works, Botticelli painted stories from classical mythology.

A shift in his art occurred after he heard fiery sermons by Friar Savonarola. Botticelli's artistic subject became more religious especially after the death of his patron, Lorenzo de Medici. I don't doubt the artist's piety, but I wonder if the shift was also due to "go along to get along" and paid.

I saw a movie about King Arthur starring Julianna Margulies. Margulies played Arthur's half sister, Morgana. She followed the old pagan ways and tried not to get swept up in the new religious fervor. At the end of the movie, Morgana is looking at a statue of the Virgin Mary. The thought occurs to her that she does not have to abandon her worship of the Goddess, earth mother. She sees Mary as the Goddess, just a different way of looking at her.

I wonder if some of that figured into Botticelli's later works.

As Game of Thrones followers, Nan pointed out that Lorenzo's death mask looked like it was right out of the House of Black and White in Braavos.

Death Mask of Lorenzo de Medici
attributed to Benintendi and Sogliani

By this time it was lunchtime, but there were long lines at the museums 4 restaurants. We decided to brave the crowds viewing the Matisse exhibit. I'll save those for next week. We were also thinking of going over to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum as it was Free Friday and admission to the Gardner was free. By this time it was pouring buckets, and the Gardner was closing early at 5 PM. We decided to save the Gardner for another outing.

By 2 PM, there was still a line at the American Cafe just as we were about to get in line, one of the wait staff put up a closed sign behind the last people in line. If only we had been 5 minutes earlier. We were worried that all the restaurants would be closing, but only this one as there was a museum function coming in.

We decided we would try Bravo, a fancy restaurant. We were on an outing so we were going to treat ourselves. As we neared Bravo, it seemed promising as there were several empty tables. The host informed us we needed a reservation and they were booked.

There was a cafeteria in the basement, but just not suitable for a special outing. There was still a long line for another cafe that offered beer, wine, salads, and Sandwich 1 and Sandwich 2. The sandwich offerings were a pulled chicken and a veggie offering. Nothing to write home about.

Nan mentioned the Flour Bakery near Back Bay Station (where we needed to catch our trains). She said her daughter who worked nearby raved about the sandwiches. So we opted for amazing sandwiches rather than ho-hum, and we weren't disappointed.

I had applewood-smoked bacon, arugula, tomato, mayo, balsamic vinaigrette, on toasted focaccia with iced tea with lemon. Nan had smoked turkey, zucchini relish, arugula, aged cheddar, mayo, on toasted multigrain. I think her beverage was a Morrocan mint iced tea.


Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.