My husband really wanted to take a trip to the BYU Museum of Art to see the Carl Bloch exhibit so we decided to make it a family event as our Friday Fun Day for this past week. The tickets were free, we just had to reserve a day and time online. We told the kids that we were going to a real art museum to see some really cool paintings of Jesus. They seemed excited enough. So we packed the kids in the minivan and drove 40 minutes to the Museum.
As for the exhibit, the paintings were beautiful and inspiring. It was a different experience seeing the original paintings as large altar pieces rather than just the prints. Well worth the drive and the time and the cost (free) for us adults. Maybe not the absolute funnest thing for kids, but they also seemed in awe as we first entered the exhibit.
The exhibit itself was smaller than I thought it would be. There were only 7 or so actual paintings of Christ by Carl Bloch. Then there was a self-portrait, one of his wife, a friend, and his parents. And there were a few other paintings he did of an area he spent the summers, some boys fishing, and random things like that. And although our kids are very well behaved, they did become bored after the first two paintings. That's where the Ipad came in handy. You can rent one for $3 that comes pre-loaded with a bunch of information about the paintings. The kids enjoyed taking turns with the headset listening to and watching the information it provided. And that gave us adults a little bit of time to take in the paintings.
Carl Bloch was an amazing artist. The love and gentleness he was able to portray in Christ's face really touched me. I was really touched with his painting of The Daughter of Jairus. Even Spencer, my 6 year old son, recognized it. He said, "That's the story of the girl who was dead but Jesus said she was just sleeping." Carl Bloch captured the mother's emotions of her daughter being dead. I was present when my brother-in-law passed away after suffering through brain cancer. A lot of emotions went through me in just a short time that I won't get into here. I loved him very much and it was very hard. However, as a mother I know it would be even harder and there would be different emotions if it were my own child. I sensed in this painting the sorrow and exhaustion in the mother's face, in a gentle motherly way. I wanted to cry for her and put my arm around her to help her through this hard time. Then my eyes wandered over to the door where Jesus was entering and the sun was rising and my heart leapt with joy because I knew Jesus would be able to miraculously return this little angel to her mother. I felt a part of this story. I also loved the "Christus Consolator" painting. The people around Christ were all different. A child, a widow, a sinner, an infirm. Christ welcomes, heals, loves, comforts every one of us regardless of our trials or stage in life. And the painting of Christ with a child made me feel how sincerely Christ loves each of us and is there for each of us. Not because he's supposed to, but because that's just him.
Okay so I'm getting away from the point which is that this was our Friday Fun Day activity of the week. The kids at first didn't seem too interested. But when I told them the story of what was happening in the paintings they seemed to "get it". For about 30 seconds. Once again, that's when the Ipad came in handy to give us adults a few more minutes. Spencer's favorite painting was the one of Prometheus chained to a rock with Hercules killing the eagle that had been eating his liver every day since Zeus chained him there. He's seen the Disney Hercules movie and he loves Superheroes so this one was his favorite. It gave me a brief teaching moment regarding Greek mythology. Tessa, my 3 year old daughter, liked the Christ paintings for about 5 seconds each and then just wanted to play with the Ipad. Clara, my 8 month old, was very squirmy but quiet when I was holding her and was contained but noisy in the stroller.
Overall Brodie and I enjoyed the exhibit, but with a 40 minute drive each way the kids didn't really think it was all that fun. They didn't complain, but they weren't jumping around. Looking back I guess we could have taken them somewhere fun to eat like Pirate Island while we were in the area and then they may have looked back on the day with greater enthusiasm. At least the $3 Ipad rental was cheaper than a babysitter would have been.
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