Legion of Honor: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Chihuly

William and I went yesterday to the Legion of Honor museum specifically to see their exhibit featuring the Dead Sea Scrolls and the other antiquities of Israel. It turns out that the exhibit itself was very small- only one room worth. But, we were able to see a long piece of the actual Dead Sea scroll- part of Psalm 82. It was neat because they would illuminate the back of it with light so that you could see the Hebrew characters. William also noticed that you can see how the characters for "Lord" are illuminated. They also had the actual pots that held the scrolls, as well as the fibrous fabric they were wrapped in. They also had a beautiful gold leaf mosaic panel they had restored as well as some jewelry and other pottery items. It was neat that we were able to see the scroll, but we would have loved to have seen more.

We then went and saw their exhibit on some of the photographs of Annie Lebowitz who has taken portraits of many of today's celebrities. However, I only liked a small portion of her work- lots of the pieces were really bizarre and just not my thing. Oh- one funny thing was that they had a sign indicating no photographs of the photographs.

HOWEVER, there were 2 very redeeming things about our visit: Rodin and Chihuly. Outside of the Rodin museum in Paris (which I've been to and LOVED), the Legion of Honor has the next extensive collection. I love his work called the Mighty Hand.

Not a normal part of the exhibit, but as an preview for the large scale exhibit coming this summer to the de Young, were 3 of the master glass artist- Dale Chihuly. This piece is entitled "Aquamarine Three Tiered Chandelier"

This is the "Sea Blue and Green Tower"

And finally, "The Sun"

I don't know why I think his works are so interesting- the craftsmanship is so intricate. Is just kind of crazy fun. William's not really a fan- to each their own. But I will definitely be seeing his exhibit this summer.