My FAMILY DAY yesterday.

On Mother's Day we had sun here in Minneapolis for a change.  But I spent my day inside anyway at the Minneapolis fine art museum (I'm not very organized - ha ha).

I have a friend who is a docent so I was there to hang out with her and enjoy her tours.  I went up and down the grand staircases too many times.  Oh well, I got a work-out, too.  It is three floors with HUGE far far far away ceilings to make room for grand things like molds of ancient Greek temple friezes, hanging over doors, and such.  I went up and down more than I needed to, I bet, but as I said, I wasn't organized yesterday.  

There is a sculpture there of a woman wearing a veil and it's all carved in white marble.  The delicate veil clings to her face so that you can see her face.  It is a marvel of sculpture - an uncanny illusion.  My friend told me it was the second most popular thing there.  I said, "Oh, I bet the Rembrandt is number one" (and it's a grand one of the moment after Lucretia has stabbed herself).  She said, "No, the mummy."  Since the mummy case is made of precious stones, and not painted, the stunning colors haven't faded one bit in all this time.  They did an x-ray and found it is a girl with a chopped off head stuffed up in her pelvis.  So they were hiding the remains of somebody else when they mummified her. 

Oooooooh .. an ancient mystery !!!!  

This painting had a mystery, too.  When the museum got it, the blood was painted out and so was the knife.  She was holding a cocktail glass.  One of the past owners found it too gruesome for his house and had it made "nice".   An x-ray showed  the original image, and so the museum had paint removed, and had it restored.  Yay !!!  The tale of why she committed suicide is a tale of why we needed feminism. She'd been raped by her husband's friend, so (of course) her honor ruined, and now that she's dying, she rings for the maid to tell her tale.