The Walters Art Museum

Dionysus and friends

Our group spent one day of our summer study program before our flight to Italy at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. It reminded me of our beloved Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, near our home.

The Walters is a small but surprisingly high-quality collection, the displays are well laid out, and the building is small enough to feel almost cozy. I highly recommend a visit. Highlights were a Roman lectus or dining-couch, a relief sculpture of a herdsman with his team of oxen, and a beautiful sarcophagus of Dionysus and Ariadne. This was just a little appetizer compared to what was coming in the following weeks, but a very palatable one.

The visit also gave me a chance to practice photography, especially indoors without a flash, before we visited the museums and monuments of Italy. My camera was a Nikon P60 digital camera, which was light enough to carry everywhere and inexpensive enough I didn't worry too much about it being stolen. It took some amazingly good pictures, too, especially as I got used to it.

Relief Sculpture of a Team of Oxen

Roman Dining-Couch

Upper-class Roman males generally reclined on their left elbows and ate with their right hands. Traditionally three diners reclined on a couch together, although they must have been much smaller than the average person today, because it's hard to imagine how they could all fit.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for making this portion of my trip possible.