Free Museum Day for Residents

All museums in Cologne are free on the first Thursday of the month.  This past Thursday I went to the big three: the Romische-Germanic Musuem, the Ludwig Musuem (MoMA), and the Wallraf-Richart Musuem. I took a few pictures at each.

Disclaimer:  I called the Romische and Wallraf musuems and confirmed posting photos is allowed.  I will call the Ludwig when it is open tomorrow just to double check.  While I was there I didn't see signs forbidding photography and the security staff didn't stop me or other people in the exhibits.

Roman Musuem

I was able to see up close the awesome floor that was found next to the Dom:

It was fun reading about the different pieces.  The next photo was for the tomb of a 25 year Roman general.  It said it was notable that he chose to be portrayed as a statesman in this peace rather than a warrior:

Because it was free museum day, there were classes of middle and high-schoolers being led around at each museum by their teachers.

My lasting impression from the museum is that I am very happy to not have been a stone carver for the Romans.  Nothing was simple and everything was very precise geometrically.

Another thing that was very surprising was the amound of intricate glass work.  I never associated Romans with glass.

Side story:
At Auburn, people do very clever things to sneak liquor into football games. People bring flasks of alcohol disguised as fake binoculars, cell phones, and much more. Apparently, the idea is as old as Rome itself.  I'll admit I couldn't understand the German for this exhibit, but I'm pretty sure the description would have translated to "Colosseum Flask Slippers".

 More Glass:

 A map of Colonia in its heyday. The wall from my earlier blog post is the wall near the river on the far right:

Map of pertinent Roman towns; all roads lead to Cologne.  It was interesting to see how similar the old names are to the current German towns in the same location.

Ludwig Museum:

The Ludwig Musuem had a lot of great pop art. Overall, I liked seeing more Warhol and Lichtenstein, as well as some different Picassos.

 There was also a great patio on the roof:

I WILL NEVER GET OVER THE DOM

 Sometimes modern art is weird. Consider, for example, a 10 minute film of a cat drinking milk:

But a lot of time it just makes me want to get out old paint set:

After hour 4 of museums it was time for some extra energy:

Alternative spelling of Jourdan

 Wallraf-Richart Musuem:

This was my favorite musuem. It had a lot of religious paintings and interesting stories about relics and artists related to Cologne. The best part, in my opinion, was the Baroque and Impressionist art in the basement.

The following are a few paintings that I thought did well playing with light:

I'll admit this is a building, not a painting. But a cool view.

 

The artist so accurately represented the location of the sun, moon, stars, and his position within the Venetian plaza, that astronomers could determine the painting was made on September 19th, 1842m at 7:30 pm.

The paintings made me want to visit Italy:

And lastly, there was a giant pinhole camera on the Dom platz.  We were able to walk into the box and see an upside down image of the Dom cast on a white screen (to make a picture, the screen would of needed to be film).