Chris' happy place

There is no substitute for a happy childhood, or any way to fully compensate later in life for an unhappy one.

Parents are supposed to instill in their kids a basic trust in life, in society, in other people. Parents are meant to establish the foundation your life is built on, the rock for you to lean on as you explore the world, to be the safety net that catches you when you fall.

Not learning how to trust, or seeing your trust repeatedly disappointed, can affect your relationships with people throughout your life, both professionally and in a personal environment.

That's why I adore the relationship Seth Meyers has with his three children. From the welcoming hug as they step onto the stage to their body language as they sit next to their father, you can sense a level of ease (different from one child to another, but still) even when confronted with a larger public.

Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (HAUM) in Braunschweig, Germany, which is quickly becoming my home away from home

Yesterday, I visited the HAUM for a second time this week and secured an annual pass to the museum while I was there. I don't doubt that this investment will pay for itself in a hurry.

This time, I headed straight for the first-floor art gallery, which is always my favorite place in any museum. I loved that instead of seeing paintings, I was instead presented with three high doors, like portals leading to different dimensions.

The inscriptions above the doors detail that there is one wing reserved for Italian artists, one shared by French and German painters, and one wing dedicated to Dutch masters, which I chose on a hunch.

Upon entering the very first room, I was immediately overwhelmed by the amazing colors, probably because it reminded me of the entrance hall to Haus Wahnfried in Bayreuth that I visited and blogged about last June.

Approaching the paintings, I was quickly confronted with Christian symbolism: John the Baptist at river Jordan initiating Jesus, who is also associated with the lamb in the bottom right corner and (harder to discern) the dove in the sky. 🕊️

All of these paintings range from 400 to 500 years of age, placing them between late renaissance and early baroque.

I enjoyed sitting in front of this ample painting for a while, looking at every detail, at every single person. The composition between the people in the foreground and the massive castle overlooking their get-together made an impression of depth on me.

This particular painting hangs somewhat to the side of a more prominent work yet to come, but I felt this falconer should have been placed right opposite the entrance, where both he and his bird of prey could meet visitors with their piercing eyes.

Created by an artist from the city of Antwerp in modern-day Belgium

Then came the star of the first room, a painting by famed master Pieter Brueghel the Younger:

The description explains that this creation draws inspiration from an earlier work by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Apparently, his son and his disciples produced hundreds of paintings, more than twenty of this scene (the crucifixion of Jesus) alone.

It's so interesting that transporting the crucifixion to the early 17th century apparently made the images more relatable to Brueghel's intended audience. I have my doubts that setting this scene in a modern-day metropolis would have the same effect on us today.

Without any claim that it is actually so, I like to think of the man to the right as Judas (who in what I consider a myth betrayed Jesus to the authorities), standing partially hidden behind a tree out of shame and embarrassment.

The woman in white caught my eye, because out of all the characters that I observed, she seems to be quite nonchalant about the unfolding event. I wonder if she is supposed to represent someone in particular. I also wonder if that hooded figure in black to her left symbolizes Death, or if what I associate in my head is a more modern representation of the Grim Reaper.

Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, my destination

I visited Braunschweig yesterday, the first of many such trips I intend to undertake this year. (Braunschweig is less than an hour distance by train.)

Church St. Magni

It is well known that I can't pass by any church without walking around it at least once and stepping inside where possible.

I love the architecture adjacent to St. Magni church.

Lots of charming streets and buildings along the way to the museum.

On 14 February, the current modern art feature at the local Sprengel Museum will see its final day, and like hundreds and hundreds of fellow enthusiasts, I took the opportunity to visit the Kusama and Murakami exhibition one last time.

Nikki de Saint Phalle: "New Man is Coming"

Oddly enough, however, my group of four then spent more time around exhibits of resident art heroine Nikki de Saint Phalle, many of which we enjoyed discussing at length.

Typical motives of Nikki's: war, death, destruction, decay

Also typically Nikki: colorful statues with prominent reproductive organs.

One of Nikki's famous Nana sculptures...

... this one produced over a period of twenty years

Nikki's statues always remind me of ancient fertility goddesses. This particular angle gave me A Clockwork Orange vibes. 😄

Arguably Nikki's most popular local art exhibit, a horse model carrying a bride to her wedding while the horse itself is covered in, again, many symbols of war, death, destruction and decay.

Erich Brunkal (1859 - 1939): "Christus". (no date)

It's remarkable how the look of Jesus Christ we all know (and some of us worship) was fabricated from nothing. After all, there is no physical description of Jesus in the Bible, and the historical figure that was upon his death transformed into a divine savior also never sat for a portrait (at least none that has survived).

And yet Christians and non-Christians alike will fight tooth and nail that the image shown above - gentle features, bearded face, dark and long hair, white skin - truthfully represents the most famous individual in human history.

Present the Nazarene as, say, short, blond or bald, and you draw the ire and protest of everyone with a clear idea of what Jesus looked like, even though there is no factual basis whatsoever for the look they trust with certainty.

The physical appearance of Jesus that is so firmly rooted in people's minds was only established in the 5th or 6th century, half a millennium after Jesus' death, modelled by Byzantine artists after the archetype of a Greek philosopher, among other inspirations.

In essence, the look of Jesus Christ was put together from imagination similar to that of Santa Claus.

Today, I explored the local museum named for 19th-century diplomat and art collector August Kestner.

Their current exhibition deals with modern designs of household items such as chairs, dinnerware or cutlery.

The most prominent manufacturers whose products are on display are based in Italy and France.

Some exhibits cleverly fuse influences from the East and the West.

Pop art and gaga objects play a major role in the current programme.

Not sure if this is a glove to lean back in or just look at.

I spontaneously nicknamed this chair "Cousin Itt". 😉

A clever way to keep people from being too handsy as well as a work of art.

Exhibits on sustainability also feature prominently.

The exhibition attempts to raise personal awareness for production methods applied and materials used.