I Have Batteries (And What That Implies!)

Good afternoon, or good morning if that is more appropriate.

Today was a free day, so we went on an afternoon trip to the Tate museum to see the JMW Turner exhibit. By we, I mean Molly, Torrey, and myself. The exhibit was really interesting, Turner has this fascination with decay and mixing ancient and contemporary visuals. By the end of his career many of his paintings were full of indistinct shapes and impressions, but it wasn't quite impressionist, though. My favorite was this, Apollo and the Python:


This doesn't really do it justice; the canvas was huge. It references killing Sin in The Faerie Queen, as well, I think, dealing with regeneration of evil (smaller snakes emerging from the body of the Python). Okay, I know it's not helpful to give my random thoughts on the painting, sorry.

And then we got to a huge exhibit of Victorian paintings, and they had soooo many good paintings. Millais, Drape, Leighton, Stubbs, but there were so few I was even a little familiar with. I'll have to spend more time there; we are all planning on it, I think. Oh, and my absolute favorite painting I saw, by Hogarth:

Satan, Sin and Death from Paradise Lost

My favorite epic poem, my favorite scene, I almost lost it when I saw this. I might have to gather 10 friends and steal this Soderbergh style, seriously. Anyway.

Okay, now for the pictures I took. Here is the Tate:

Beautiful building, beautiful day

I'm beginning to untangle the underground. Armed with my Oyster card, I can figure out how to get almost anywhere. I'm pretty proud of myself.

So tomorrow's the coach trip around London. I will have more pictures than ever, so tune in!