Saint Augustine, FL
March 10th, 2022
The Lightner Museum is an iconic building in the heart of Saint Augustine. It is an extraordinary museum collection offering beautiful, curious, and intriguing artifacts. This museum occupies the former Hotel Alcazar, a Gilded Age resort hotel commissioned by Henry Flagler, and provides an immersive experience of art, architecture, history, and design.
The Lightner Museum Informational Link
This is a statute of Cleopatra made by Raffaelo Romanelli in the late 19th century. Its imposing presence and effortless elegance define the sculpture. While the Cleopatra statue is not original to St. Augustine, its standard connection was Raffaelo himself, creating the lion sculptures that grace the Bridge of Lions.
Artifact #2
This image depicts an Indian Maid with the United States Flag. It is speculated that this piece is from 1930 in the Chicago area. Due to many large mansions being demolished and the architectural features were sold. This door is assumed to have come from one of those victorian homes.
In Conversation #1
The Pyramid of Khafre is also known as the Pyramid of Chephren because this name is called Khafre. It is known as the second tallest Pyramid in ancient Egypt and is located next to the famous Pyramid of his father, Khufu. The Pyramid may appear higher than the Pyramid of Khufu because of the higher bedrock it's built on. It is also the second-largest Pyramid located in the Giza necropolis and is made the same way as those of the other Pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty. It was brought into the limelight of the modern world in the early 19th century by the famous Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni. Still, unfortunately, the Pyramid was found to be empty of the mummy of Khafre, and many of the stone casings have seemed to have been stolen at a much earlier point in time, presumably during the reign of the Pharaohs of later dynasties. Due to the statue used to commemorate Cleopatra, I thought about how Egyptians mummified imperative people. That thought led me to think about Khufu; I wanted to learn something new, so I learned about one of his other sons, Khafre.
Valley Temple of Khafre image link
In Conversation #2
Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements with 1,000 distinct characters. Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. Hieroglyphs consisted of three kinds of glyphs: phonetic glyphs, single-consonant characters that function like an alphabet; logographs, representing morphemes; and determinatives, which narrow down the meaning of logographic or phonetic words. The museum had a small section dedicated to a mummified figure. Upon the walls surrounding the individual, there were many of what I interpreted as some form of hieroglyphs. Therefore, being immersed in this world of Ancient Egypt, I felt it was a gratifying and vital topic to write about.
Creative Component
Literary Component
My literary component comes from Pablo Neruda's One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII. The quote goes, "I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly between the shadow and the soul." I chose this because it reminds me of how people find joy and meaning in art, whether dark or realistic. For example, in the Lightner, a mummy is showcased. But most draw solace or some form of pleasure in dark art or themes, which reminded me of Neruda finding his love in the shadow and darkness.
No comments:
Post a Comment