London- My New Favorite City!

This past weekend our class went to London, it was absolutely amazing! (London is by far my new favorite city to ever visit.) We went to the British Museum and the National Gallery. I enjoyed many things in each museum, but my favorite part of the day was walking through and seeing the beautiful paintings in the National Gallery. It was exciting to see the impressionist section of the gallery, filled with works by Degas, Manet, Monet, Renior and many other distinguished artists I was overtaken with thought. One painting that I was most impressed by was "The Ambassadors" by Holbein. This is a painting that I had studied in Art 100 with Dan McGregor, and is much larger than I imagined it to be. I remember learning about it in class, and to be completely honest it was not my favorite painting. However, when I was face to face with the large canvas- full of intricate detail, vibrant color, symbolism and history, my opinion changed about the portrait. I loved the green background with the velvet looking curtain. The eminent men in the painting are wealthy ambassadors from France to England, wearing fine clothing. They stand next to a shelf filled with books, musical instruments, compasses, a globe and absurdly below their feet lies a distorted skull that can only be made out when one stands directly to the right of the painting. This may be a metaphor by the artist on death or some interpret it as "mortality". While this is just a picture, it gives great insight to the men and history of this time. I stood there and thought to myself that these would be very interesting men to have a meaningful conversation, filled with knowledge and wisdom. I wondered what they were like when they lived. They obviously were well educated for the position and occupation that they held during this time period. Although there were thousands of other paintings in the magnificent gallery, this is one that most stands out in my mind.