A Visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Hi everyone,       
      Hope you've been doing well! I am currently on "spring break" although it feels more like winter still here in Massachusetts! This past Monday a couple of my friends and I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I had never been and one of my friends said she enjoyed it when she visited before so we decided to check it out! It is actually very close to The Museum of Fine Arts which I found surprising and so it was very easy to get to especially with the T!

      The price of admission is also very reasonable, the regular adult price is $15, there is a senior discount, and people under the age of 18 get in free. For college students it is $5 with a valid school i.d. However, I embarrassingly somehow forgot to bring my school i.d. with me even though I knew I needed it! I guess I thought it was in my wallet but it turns out it was not. I was annoyed with myself about that but there wasn't anything I could do. When my friends and I went to the counter to buy our tickets before heading in the museum I decided to explain that I forgot my i.d. and the museum worker was very nice and let me pay the student price because my friends could vouch for me!

This is a painting of Isabella Stewart Gardner herself, there are a couple throughout the museum!

      Once we dropped our coats at the coat check (which is complementary) we headed into the new wing of the museum first. It is a fairly recent addition and has more contemporary art and pieces in it. The current exhibit was one on sound. There was one wall with some photographs of cats and then a recording of each one's purr. Cats are one of my friend's favorite animals and she definitely enjoyed that piece. There was also a large room that had a lot of windows and natural light and there were 50 small speakers covering the walls, each playing one note from a classical  piano song but simultaneously. So instead of hearing the melody and recognizing it we could only hear all the notes at one time. It was very interesting. They also had different sounds playing in the other part of the museum as part of the exhibit, although the noises being played did not really go with the rooms which I felt was a bit distracting.

A section of one of the rooms in the old wing

     Now on to the main part of the museum, the "old wing" or original section of the museum. This part houses the pieces that Isabella Stewart Gardner collected throughout her life and travels. There is art from all over the world and from all different eras as well. There were many painting and other artifacts, especially from Europe. This wing is also known as the Palace, and for good reason too. It is very ornate and beautiful. Many of the rooms are very large and have tiled floors and fire places. It is not set up like a regular museum. There are no labels next to the pieces and the rooms are set up to look like regular rooms that would be in, for lack of a better term, a Palace.  The rooms do have information cards in a holder and these are very helpful for explaining who painted or made each piece, when and where.

There are also many beautiful stained glass windows

Here is an example of one of the numerous fireplaces.

 You can see how regal the rooms look and how the chairs and other objects are reminiscent of a medieval castle.

    One of my favorite parts of the whole museum and what makes it really unique is the courtyard.  It is a beautiful area in the middle of the building. Filled with luscious green plants and flowers. There are fountains, statues, and benches surrounding it as well. It is so gorgeous and peaceful! There is a glass roof enclosing it but it is extremely high up and it is not very noticeable. You feel as though you are outside in an amazing courtyard in Italy!

     I believe that most of "the Palace" was actually transported from Italy, reconstructed, and turned into the museum. However I am not 100% sure so don't quote me on that!
      When looking at some of the paintings I noticed something that looked familiar.  I picked up one of the information cards to check out one of the paintings. I had thought I recognized a building from Venice and it turns out I had! I then went through the camera roll on my phone and found a picture I had taken in October while on my trip to Italy and it matched the painting I was looking at! That was a very surreal and I'll admit, pretty cool moment!

The painting on the top is the one I am referring to.

      It's crazy that the same buildings are still there and in remarkably good shape! I also find it pretty cool when my friends and I notice paintings or items similar to things we've seen in textbooks or when we are able to pull on knowledge from different courses such as Art or Fashion History and point things out in artwork!

     I definitely recommend checking out this museum if you have the chance! It is not very large and so it should not take too long to get through, one afternoon should be sufficient. My friend who had visited it before did point out though that it is a place that one would definitely notice new things in each time they visit! My mom had not been too thrilled at first when I mentioned that I was visiting the Gardner Museum because surprisingly she had not enjoyed her time there. She felt as though it was too dark inside and she could not see the paintings and other items well. I agree that it is pretty dim especially compared to other museum but they keep the lights low to preserve the pieces. Daylight coming in through the windows made it very easy for me to see everything but my mom had gone on a cloudy day. So "pro tip", visit when there is a good amount of daylight! It would not be fun to visit and not be able to get the full experience due to not being able to see!
     Here is the museum's website if you are interested in more information: http://www.gardnermuseum.org/home/

Do you have a favorite museum?

Thanks for reading!
Emily

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