Another trip to LACMA to see the Magna Carta

As I mentioned in my previous blog, when I visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last week I totally blanked out on one of my main objectives which was to see a version of the Magna Carta. This has been a pretty hectic week and although yesterday, May 5, was the last day it was on view, I really had a fight with myself to get out the door and on the bus. Of course, as I knew I would, once I arrived at the museum I was happy I had made the effort.

The Magna Carta sat by itself in a darkened gallery. If you gave your imagination a chance you could almost visualize yourself back in the year 1217 when this manuscript was signed in the name of King Henry III (who was ten years old at the time). The original Magna Carta, which basically took away a king’s ability to arbitrarily declare “off with your head” (well, nothing is ever that simple), was signed in 1215. Although many changes have been made over the centuries, it has been the basis for law among English-speaking people ever since.

It was written in the Latin script of the Medieval Ages so, unless you are a scholar of such things, it is unfortunately not possible to read it. But just knowing what this 800-year-old piece of paper meant to the feudal barons of the time, and what it now means to us as common citizens, was quite overwhelming.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, a movie about this very subject just opened. Ironclad, starring James Purefoy as a Knight Templar and Paul Giamatti as King John is described by Netflix as an “action-packed period piece set at the height of the Middle Ages.” Needless to say, it is now on my saved list.

Mourner with Head Uncovered, Wiping His Tears on His Cloak with His Right Hand, no. 55
Jean de la Herta & Antoine Le Moiturier, 1443–1456/57, Alabaster, 16 1/16 x 7 1/16 x 5 15/16 in.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon
Image: Photo @ FRAME (French Regional and American Museum Exchange) by Jared Bendis and François Jay

In the gallery next door is an exhibit so brand spanking new it is not even officially open yet. (May 8–July 31, 2011.) The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy consists of about 37 alabaster figures in the form of monks and clerics which normally surround the tomb of John the Fearless, the second duke of Burgundy. As the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, where they are housed, is being renovated, this was an opportunity to loan out the exquisite sculptures. In an adjoining room is a short video demonstrating how the pieces were sculpted with various tools and smoothed with sandpaper.


Copyright: LACMA.
Persepolis Relief: A Gift Bearer, Southern Iran, Persepolis Achaemenid period, circa 5th century B.C.

 To finish my visit I stopped off at the Hammer Building and wandered through the Art of the Ancient Near East galleries. I noticed a stunning fragment of a wall relief from Southern Iran, Persepolis Relief: A Gift Bearer. There is a computer-generated simulation of what the palace may have looked like where this piece came from.

Copyright LACMA. Coffin Base side 1, Egypt, likely Thebes, mid-21st Dynasty (about 1000 - 968 BCE)

I also managed to drop in on the last half of a docent tour as she was expounding on the significance of the different gods depicted on an Egyptian sarcophagus. As Egyptian archaeology is second only to my love of Roman archaeology, I was happy to hear her explanation.

Another afternoon well-spent at LACMA.

(Just a note: not that I would expect in a million years anyone from LACMA would be reading my lowly blog, but I have made five or more requests regarding my account for downloading photos from the image library which is suddenly not working.... in the meantime I am doing the best I can to credit the above photos appropriately.)