After waiting for a bus, walking half a mile from the nearest bus stop, and getting slightly lost on the way, a friendly receptionist greeted me as I adjusted the heavy backpack on my shoulders. She advised me to put my overstuffed backpack into a locker and hang up my coat, so as to be at my most comfortable for the free art viewing. When I went into the lime green coat room, I shoved my backpack into what could be the most inconveniently designed lockers; obviously they weren’t expecting many students with a lot of homework.
Immediately upon pulling open the glass doors (after I had awkwardly tried to push them open), I was consumed by the wafting scent of oil paints washing over me as I walked to my right. I was greeted by a security guard, who eyed me carefully, and a wall of Medieval European portraits, the kind that are slightly off-putting. I say this because, when I look at these portraits and stand right in front of them, I feel like they are not looking at me at all, but gazing aimlessly through me. They feel lifeless and not exactly what I expected to see upon entering the museum, especially after seeing the massive metallic, wind turbine-like contraption outside.
This was in large contrast to, ironically, the funerary portraits of Egyptian and Syrian people after death. Their portraits revealed them as being lively and human and so full of emotion that it really made me think about the mindset of Ancient Egyptian and Syrian people in comparison to Medieval European. I always appreciated the human like qualities of a work of art, which showed that the object was not perfect, it made it feel more relatable.
What I really found interesting, and what I had never thought about before, as I slowly walked through the gallery, was the strategic placement of the delightfully comfortable, purple cushions. I was extremely tired after not having gotten much sleep and being on my feet all day so I took refuge in those little cushions that were scattered about the museum. The first one I saw I immediately collapsed on, and then noticed how Charles Wilson Peale’s rendition of Mary Claypoole Peale looks like a female George Washington, who he also did a portrait of, and was placed only a painting away. I would have never noticed if I hadn’t taken the moment to sit down and really see.
My next seat was a fatherly looking dark, leather chair in the Rotherwas Room. There were four arm chairs in each corner of the room that gave you different vantage points of the various pieces depicting holy Christian figures, mainly of Jesus and Mary. After that I turn the corner and see a large painting that just screams “Gluttony” to me. There are all sorts of dead animals scattered on a table with a servant holding a platter of a boar’s head. Upon looking at the description of “Larder with a Servant” by Frans Snyders, it asked you to look at it from a different perspective. Nowadays it may seem morbid and grotesque but then, in the 17th century, it would be seen as an affluent family’s home that is in good order.
The next painting that caught my eye was titled “Present” and it was a massive painting of a hilly landscape at sunset with a crumbling castle in the background. In the foreground was a Shepherd being bathed in light from an arch in the castle. I didn’t even notice until I sat down at one of those conveniently placed seats that I saw the massive painting right next to it was titled “Past” and was the same landscape and castle, except it was the set of a jousting arena, filled with crowds of people and two knights jousting. Seeing the tiny details and such precision in each painting was breath taking and truly left a profound mark on me. I spent the most time sitting in front of those two pictures, enraptured, and awed all at once. Those paintings were what made the trip worthwhile.
The Mead Museum at Amherst College is a great place to experience many different cultures without having to go abroad. It's free, open to the public, almost always open and easily accesible. I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the Pioneer Valley area of Massachusetts!