Trip to see the BEAUTY....Bellas Artes

Sarah left the house at 8am, to go paintballing with about 8 girls, and Sylivia who invited her for her birthday party. Mike and I decided to see our own kind of paint, and go early to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. We remember the great museum of Fine arts in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and some incredible works of art in Europe so we decided to go to the National Fine Arts Museum here in Santiago and see what types of internationally famous pieces we might find. We weren’t disappointed.

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We took the red metro line to Barnacado, algo asi, and then made the connection to the green line and got off at the Bellas Artes stop, right near the museum. We walked around the corner, and off the top of the roofs I could see the dome/cupola, famous ceiling of the museum. We headed over and as we approached, I was so excited to see what this beautiful building had inside. The outside was wonderful, and I know that Mike wasn’t too thrilled to stand outside while I took fotos of the front, the unique and ornate detail work all around the entrance.
This museum was founded on Sept 18th, 1880, and was located on the upper floor of the National Congress bldg until this was built. The bldg that now hosts the museum was build by Chilean French Architect, Emil Jequier, who took the Petit Palais from Paris as his model. It is built in the neoclassical style with art noveau ornamentation. The dome’s metal frame for the ceiling was imported from Belguim in 1907. It is absolutely spectacular. The building and architecture inside and out was part of the most interesting detail for me, this trip. I found much of it so fascinating and classic, that I knew this is something I wanted to remember since it touched me. I took fotos of the arches, columns, statues, cornices, staircases, and doorknob details. Just entering the huge hall central, and looked up at that cavernous, stainglass ceiling, made us gasp, and feel like we had just scene something incredible. We were so glad we decided to come. We thought for a minute that we’d like to share it, bring Sarah, our family, and then we thought about the missionaries experiencing such beauty, we turned corners and found many statues and monuments without clothes, that we changed our minds!
Mike and I walked around each salon and found some to our particular liking, and others that did nothing for us, as is sometimes expected in a museum, I believe. We would laugh at some exhibits, and wondered who was the judge that said this should be considered art, while other specific pieces were beautiful and we also agreed that they represented gorgeous art. I think that is the way with art, as it appeals to each person in a different way.
We found one whole exhibit that was done with pins, like straight push pins of different colors, lengths, details on the ends, etc, and it got quite monotonous. Also, there was another that was just photographs taken of variety of people’s faces, with their eyes shut, that did nothing for us, except remind us of a death mask look. Yuckky. They did have some beautiful art that is on their permanent collection section, that we really liked, and wished we could have taken pictures in that area, but it wasn’t allowed there. Also, they had a statue pictured above, that reminded us of Michelangelo’s Pieta that we saw when we were in Italy, His was breathtaking, and yet this had a different sadness. There was also a whole section on photographs that were taken representing unique use of space, with modern items in a nature setting, like chairs in a rough group of rocks, or coach in a cave, etc. Not really that interesting, but they were trying to unique and creative. Kind of dull for us. Some gorgeous photographs taken about the turn of the century, in northern Chile and parts of Peru, that made you want to go there and see the people this showed in their old families portraits, clothes, cars, etc.
Lastly, we saw this man, well-dressed and sitting out in front of the museum, holding his dress overcoat, umbrella, and just thinking….I hope that he had been inside and was remembering like I was of how beautiful those things were, and that God gave to some the incredible talent to create beautiful art, in many forms. However Man and Women are His finest creations, and what a blessing that He made us different and unique too, yet beautiful and spectacular in a variety of ways..


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