Library of Congress
While in the WDC area, I toured the Library of Congress, where one of my nieces works. I had thought I would go to the Smithsonian again because one cannot see too much of the Smithsonian, and indeed, I still have not seen all the museums comprising the Smithsonian.
However, my niece recommended that we tour the Library of Congress, so we did. I might have been vaguely aware that the Library of Congress existed, but I had no idea it could be toured, or that there would be anything there to see if one did tour it.
It turns out that the LOC is a building in the Rococo style (again, not aware that existed?) and it is chock-full of representational art and statuary. After touring the LOC, I can tell you that I don’t care for representational art, not because it isn’t decorative and beautiful but because it is like drowning in a sea of incomprehensible details. It is like studying organic chemistry…thousands of random facts that simply have to be memorized because there is no rhyme or reason to them, no system that binds them all together into a comprehensible whole.
Everywhere you look in the entire building there are depictions of…STUFF. The twelve Social Virtues, for instance, represented by twelve giant paintings of ladies in flowing robes holding tablets or staffs or books or scepters and wearing golden circlets and medallions and such. There’s no making any sense of it. Everything MEANS something. There are representations of the branches of knowledge and philosophy and Industry and mathematics and heaven-only-knows-what-all. Apparently the artists who painted all of it used their wives as inspiration for the bazillion ladies that represent every thought that ever wafted across human consciousness. Every square inch of the walls and ceilings (and windows) are jammed with this stuff. It’s all very ornate. I didn’t take very many photos because it was totally overwhelming, and I would have melted my camera into a puddle of goo taking thousands of pictures whose meanings I couldn’t remember if you put a gun to my head. I took about three pictures, and here they all are to give you a flavor of what is in the building. I recommend you see it for yourself, as it’s quite an impressive sight even if it gives you a headache, as it did me.
They also have a Gutenberg Bible there, which is pretty cool.
Enormous mural (with gold leaf tiles) depicting something lofty and inspiring…Truth, maybe? Liberty? Wisdom? I forget.
Lovely stained-glass skylights. The triangular paintings underneath are (of course) representational. I think Aristotle’s name is on one of those plaques, so maybe they are all philosophers?
Yeah…no idea what these paintings are. I didn’t know when I took the picture because by this time my eyes were glazed over and I had a migraine. They might be the Types of Industry or Fields of Human Endeavor or some such. And the triangles might be publishing companies. I know there were publishing companies depicted somewhere on the ceiling.
Finally something I recognize! This is the Gutenberg Bible.