A day full of art and artifacts
Wow! What an incredible day! We were able to visit three of the museums on Museumsinsel and it was exactly what I was looking forward to.
Our first stop was the Neues Museum and we headed straight for the Egyptian collection. Some of my favorite pieces are below. I have seen the relief on the top left many times, most recently in National Geographic History Magazine, so being able to take a close look at it in real life was amazing.
Here's what's below, going from top to bottom and left to right:
Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters
A statuette of a Kushite king
Head of a statue of a princess
"Stroll in a Garden" of a royal couple
Bust of Akenaten (intentionally damaged)
Praying statute of king Amenemhet III
Head of a statue of king Amasis
Stela of Kai, chief of the desert hunters with his favorite hounds
Sculpture of a cat from 650 BCE
Closeup of a pet monkey
Ushabtis (funerary figures that represent servants)
A roomful of sarcophagi
Of course, the true star of the Neues Museum's collection is the bust of Nefertiti. For the last 18 years, I have had a model of the bust that a student made perched on the shelf above my desk. Being able to see her up close was the highlight of the whole museum. Photos were not allowed, so I made sure to spend as much time as I could, closely observing her from all angles. I was not only blown away by the minute details of the sculpture but also by how well-preserved it was – it's about 3,500 years old! Is it weird to say that she is my new celebrity crush?... Yes, it probably is, but still!
Click here to learn more about the bust of Nefertiti and the queen herself and click on the image below to see a high-definition, zoomable image.
The Neues Museum has a huge collection of artifacts from ancient and medieval Europe. Here are a few of my favorites (from top to bottom, left to right):
a gladiator figurine
belt buckles from early Medieval Europe
The Crown of Kerch
A brick from the 13th or 14th century with the maker's handprint
The tomb plate of Heinrich Beyer Boppard and his wife (14th century)
Skulls of ancient Europeans
The Berlin Gold Hat
Bronze Age horns called lurs
A reconstruction of a Neanderthal based on the Le Moustier Neanderthal Skull
The Pergamom Museum was our next stop, and even though remodeling prevented us from accessing a large portion of the museum, we got to see the Ancient Near Eastern Cultures collection. It did not disappoint!
Below are images of carvings and statues from ancient Sumeria, Babylonia, and Assyria (including Assyrian King Sargon), the Processional Way and Ishtar Gate from Babylon, the Market Gate of Miletus, a Roman gateway, and a complete mosaic – all of which have been completely reconstructed inside the museum.
The Ishtar Gate was built under the direction of none other than King Nebuchadnezzar. The inscription (above, in the center of the fifth row) says, "I laid the foundation of the gates down to the ground water level...and had them built out of sheer blue stone, on which bulls and dragons were elaborately painted.... I set up wild bulls and furious dragons in front of the gates and thus magnifidently adorned them with luxurious splendor for al mankind to look at in surprise."
Check out videos of the two gates below. I hope they give you a much better idea of the size and scale of these masterpieces.
After walking around more of the island and checking out the Berlin Cathedral, we stopped by our third and final museum, Altes Museum, which focuses on Greek and Roman art.
Below are pictures of one of the two lion fighter sculptures outside the museum, a bust of Pericles, a sculpture of an actor playing the role of a satyr, the head of an old centaur, Greek hoplite figurines, and the head of Herakles depicted as a boxer.
It was a long day museum-hopping and I was overwhelmed by all of the amazing things I saw. There was still so much more to see on Museum Island, but I'd have to save it for another trip tp Berlin.
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