Dumbarton Oaks
We also decided to tour Dumbarton Oaks' garden. After being cooler in the morning, the day became very hot and humid. Here are the others listening to the docent. I decided to take an unsupervised tour of the garden:-P
Setting off by myself.
Dumbarton had a lot of cool wrought iron gates.
The roses were gorgeous.
Headed to see the hydrangeas.
This was one of my favorite spots in the whole garden. Hydrangeas and shade!!!
I was a bit surprised that they had so many urns...
Meeting up with the others, now finally released by the docent.
Dumbarton's grounds, though terraced, drop between 50 and 100 feet depending on the direction you are headed. Here the others are near the bottom. We followed the trail, to discover a FAKE FOUNTAIN!?! I was a little puzzled at its purpose...but at least smart enough to volunteer to take the picture, so I didn't have to walk quite as far back up the hill.
After the gardens, we walked through the main house which has exhibits of Byzantine and pre-Columbian art. While we enjoyed the art, what we appreciated most was the air conditioning.
The Byzantine exhibit had some very interesting textiles, as well as a fair number of religious artifacts. I thought one of the most fascinating was a bone plated rosetta box which had the twelve disciples in bas relief. Apparently, out of the several hundred rosetta boxes that survived, only four had Christian themes.
J had a good laugh, when I fessed up to having a brain freeze when we were discussing going to see the exhibits and thought that we were going to see an exhibit of Colombian art, not pre-Columbian.
Setting off by myself. Dumbarton had a lot of cool wrought iron gates.The roses were gorgeous.
Headed to see the hydrangeas. This was one of my favorite spots in the whole garden. Hydrangeas and shade!!!
I was a bit surprised that they had so many urns... Meeting up with the others, now finally released by the docent.Dumbarton's grounds, though terraced, drop between 50 and 100 feet depending on the direction you are headed. Here the others are near the bottom. We followed the trail, to discover a FAKE FOUNTAIN!?! I was a little puzzled at its purpose...but at least smart enough to volunteer to take the picture, so I didn't have to walk quite as far back up the hill. After the gardens, we walked through the main house which has exhibits of Byzantine and pre-Columbian art. While we enjoyed the art, what we appreciated most was the air conditioning.The Byzantine exhibit had some very interesting textiles, as well as a fair number of religious artifacts. I thought one of the most fascinating was a bone plated rosetta box which had the twelve disciples in bas relief. Apparently, out of the several hundred rosetta boxes that survived, only four had Christian themes.
J had a good laugh, when I fessed up to having a brain freeze when we were discussing going to see the exhibits and thought that we were going to see an exhibit of Colombian art, not pre-Columbian.
posted by Ceil | 11:44 PM
3 Comments:
Good call setting out on your own. One can only take so much idolization by the docent of the two or three people who designed such and such part of the terracing and shrubbery...
Hi there,
Did you by any chance get to explore the actual library part of Dumbarton? I've heard it's really cool.
I'm trying this blogging thing again, mostly focusing on theology and book reviews - we'll see if I keep it up this time. Meanwhile, us guys will have to have some of you people over for dinner sometime. It's been a while.
- Jeremy P.
We didn't actually make it as far as the library. I think you have to make an appointment to actually get into that part, and we were more casual visitors that day. It does look like they have a great collection.
What are you up to these days? Hope things are going well!
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