Instruments & Mahakala Sculpture @ MFA

It was the end of the year winter break and I took a quick morning visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
It was cold and raining really hard and thought the museum would be quite empty but it was packed with people, lots of people from out of town. I jumped into the first room near the main entrance filled with old/ rare instruments from all over the world.
 
Here's the Lyre Guitar from France, Treble Guitar from Portugal and a digital harp from England. Since I love playing the ukulele, I loved seeing the Treble guitar which is what eventually turned into the ukulele when it was introduced to Hawaii.




This colorful harp was an exact replica of an Irish harp made in 1734. The original was displayed next to this model but was really beat up and just dark brown.




Here's a trumpet from Tibet and Zither from India.

All of the displayed instruments were quite fascinating and I wish I could have listened to a sample of what it would sound like.


After having a quick bite to eat, I wrapped up the day with 2 more sketches of Mahakala sculpture from Tibet.

Front view:




Back view:
I loved the back view of this even more.
The thing he's stretching is a flat 'elephant' and he also has 2 feet hanging from his butt which I thought was quite comical.

Sculptures @ MFA (Boston)

2 months ago I became a member of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and have come here already about 5,6 times to sketch especially on days that are cold or raining. I like this place and usually come with an open mind, walk around, and sketch whatever interests me at that time.
This day the theme seemed to be 'Sculptures'.

1st one was the Kneeling Knight from Spain (1600's)
Very powerful room setting with the stained glass in the background.

 

Not really a 'Sculpture' but a Burial Urn from Mesoamerica.
There were a few of these some what fun large sized Burial urn's.

 

Here's Ganesha from Northern India in 11th Century




Amida Buddha from Japan (1737)
   

The last one was Aizen Myoo from Japan 14th Century.
The sculpture was very lowly lit and was quite scary.
   

Happy Holidays everyone!