Episode 140 - Museum memories

My family visited the Hong Kong Museum of Art today.

The Museum holds a number of important events this year. This time, it brings to us some interesting exhibits from the British Museum.

The exhibits are housed in two exhibition halls in the Museum. The Egyptian Section attracted the attention of most visitors. This section shows a mummy and many beautiful Egyptian artifacts.

I have been to the British Museum many times and this event only exhibits a small portion of the British Museum collection. Whilst it did not give me any surprise, it brought back to me many beautiful memories.

There are many great museums in the UK. Apart from the British Museum, I like the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the National Gallery. It's worth investing one whole visiting day for the collections in each of these museums.

A museum is a place where you can explore, appreciate, imagine and learn. I recall that I once saw a group of school children having a study tour in the National Gallery. The children sat in a circle in front of a painting. Out of curiosity, I and the other tourists gathered behind in the outer ring. The teacher stood in front of the painting and gave a lesson to the children (and the other museum visitors) on how to appreciate the artwork.

The painting was "Ulysses deriding Polyphemus" by Turner. It showed some Greeks ships sailing away from the coastal area. According to the teacher, they were fleeing from a giant's cave having hurt the only eye of the giant. The teacher then asked the children if they could see the giant in the painting. Everyone was quiet. The teacher then pointed to an upper portion of the painting. We were curious as we could not see any giant in the painting not to say that portion. A child then raise his hand and said, "I saw it! Here is his hand." I then realised that there was a hand image in the upper portion of the painting. It was merged with the cloud in the sky. It looked as if the hand was turning backward rather than outward for the escaping Greeks. The teacher then asked: "Why the hand is up there in that portion of the painting and in that shape?" The child answered: "The giant's eye is painful. He is soothing it with his hand."

The audience applauded.