A Visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

After viewing the Napoleon exhibit we journeyed through the rest of the museum. It is a nice size, fitting the size of the metro surrounding it. It has a decent collection of ancient items. Here are a few of them.

My favorite items being the Bull Head Capitol, and the Persian relief, both from Persepolis. See below.

I am curious as to what the bulls horns would have been. They also have an large section on Asia, particularly China, but also India, SE Asia and Japan. Here are a few pics of that.

I have been reading the Cambridge History of Ancient China. A great book that covers from prehistory to the end of the Warring States period. I have just gotten through the Spring and Autumn period in the book. A large portion of the book deals with the Shang and Zhou periods. There is not much in the way of written evidence for those times (probably was but most likely written on a perishable substance and did not survive). However, many ritual bronzes survived as funerary artifacts. So even though I am big into military history, I totally geeked out over the ritual bronzes they had. It was cool to see the real deal. Here is a few.

These items played a huge role in Shang and Zhou China. No one really knows what they were used for. Just that the richer you were, the more of these items you had. Below is a few more random items.

If you are in the area this is definitely a place to check out.

Napoleon: Power & Splendor

This was the first weekend in some time that the weather has been decent in KC so, we ventured out to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art to see the exhibition Napoleon: Power & Splendor. If this comes around your area, it is definitely worthwhile. Being a Napoleon geek, it was definitely worthwhile seeing the items on display. And it was inexpensive. I got in on the senior rate, WTH!. But hey a couple bucks saved is ok too. One of the first things you see upon entering the exhibit is this iconic portrait of the man himself.

I think I may have gotten some goosebumps when I saw this. Truly amazing to see it in the flesh. As you traveled through the gallery there were numerous other portraits like these.

 The top guy I forgot who it is. The one on the bottom was Napoleon's Chamberlain. Below is a portrait of an aide-de camp to Napoleon in the uniform of a cuirassier. I believe his name was LeGrand (not the General).

No exhibition of Napoleon would be complete without his right hand man Marshal Berthier.

As a gamer, this next selection intrigued me. These are essentially miniatures representing the Imperial Guard. 

The pictures above show the following troops, top to bottom, Grenadier a Cheval, Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, Chasseurs of the Imperial Guard, and the Guard Mamluks. All of the guard units seemed to be included in the display. Super Cool!

There were also some personal items like his hunting dagger, and a coat. I did not see a placard for the coat so I don't know it's story.

And there was, of course, an Imperial dinner service.

As we continued there was this tower clock. What I found notable was the engraving on it with the name of Marshal Ney.

There was also this fabulous bust, that was a gift from Napoleon to Bessieres I believe.

I am not a big fan of tapestries, but, this one caught my eye. Mainly because it features Roustam, Napoleon's mamluk valet.

This last item was one of my favorites. I would have this over my fireplace in a hot second.

There were a bunch of other items, too many to show here. Again if this comes to a nearby Museum it is worth the time to go see it.