Thanks for this piece. I went to college in the Philly area but never went to the Penn Museum. Last Saturday I visited and had a great time. The Asian gallery rotunda is a real highlight. Your photos don't capture the impressive size of the horse reliefs. I watched half of the CT Loo talk a couple nights ago and I'm looking forward to the rest, it's a very interesting story.
glad to hear you went! and agree, one point I maybe didn't stress enough is that everything in the rotunda is interesting, not just the horse reliefs and the guardian lions--also the statue pedestals, the ceramic horses and camels, smiling Buddha, crystal ball...
Quite a romp through the Penn Museum collection. There's a typo in the paragraph near the end that starts "Incantation bowls." Looks like you changed something without deleting what was no longer necessary.
There were so many comments I could have made while reading it but then of course forget them.
The bowls looked familiar. Did you post them on IG? They remind me a bit of the Islamic bowls with their sayings, but those are for eating & then one gets to discover the piece of advice after all the food is gone.
Marvellous. I love museum visits, even someone else's. On the subject of C.T. Loo, I sought out his famous house in Paris in 2018 and took some photos of the striking exterior. Unfortunately, the interior can't be visited unless you get yourself invited to a function that it's been rented for. It must have been something to see when it functioned as his home and gallery. Thanks for the tip on Lenain's book; I'll look for it.
Thanks for this piece. I went to college in the Philly area but never went to the Penn Museum. Last Saturday I visited and had a great time. The Asian gallery rotunda is a real highlight. Your photos don't capture the impressive size of the horse reliefs. I watched half of the CT Loo talk a couple nights ago and I'm looking forward to the rest, it's a very interesting story.
glad to hear you went! and agree, one point I maybe didn't stress enough is that everything in the rotunda is interesting, not just the horse reliefs and the guardian lions--also the statue pedestals, the ceramic horses and camels, smiling Buddha, crystal ball...
Quite a romp through the Penn Museum collection. There's a typo in the paragraph near the end that starts "Incantation bowls." Looks like you changed something without deleting what was no longer necessary.
There were so many comments I could have made while reading it but then of course forget them.
The bowls looked familiar. Did you post them on IG? They remind me a bit of the Islamic bowls with their sayings, but those are for eating & then one gets to discover the piece of advice after all the food is gone.
Marvellous. I love museum visits, even someone else's. On the subject of C.T. Loo, I sought out his famous house in Paris in 2018 and took some photos of the striking exterior. Unfortunately, the interior can't be visited unless you get yourself invited to a function that it's been rented for. It must have been something to see when it functioned as his home and gallery. Thanks for the tip on Lenain's book; I'll look for it.
oh yes I didn’t even get to the house, so much to say about him. the linked Asia Society lecture is fantastic