Dumbarton Oaks Museum

December 31, 2009: On the last afternoon of the year, we visited Dumbarton Oaks. It was too cold and icy to view its famous garden, but we were more interested in its Byzantine and Pre-Columbian collections. It's about the only museum in Washington that admits to history and civilization before 1776, let alone 1492.

A Roman floor mosaic of cupids fishing:
Bill liked the parrot frieze from an Early Byzantine floor mosaic (l); David liked the tempura painting of ducks from a 1st century Roman wall (r) [19th century French impressionism appears to be Johnny-come-lately.]

This bronze horse (c. 200) was reconstructed from pieces found in Yemen:

The Pre-Columbian art and artifacts are mostly housed in a glass museum designed by Philip Johnson.

The portraiture in this wing resembles faces we see on the streets of Washington:












Silver and gold:

But this shell was more precious:
Turquoise and feathers:































The Music Room houses mostly European art and artifacts. The room was the site of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference during WWII that laid the foundation for the United Nations.

Above the fireplace is this plan of the famous garden: