Roman Art from the Louvre exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum

Last night I went to one of the last days of the Roman Art from the Louvre exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. Here I  have a joint membership with one of my best friends Kai and we both love art and enjoy the museum. I've been to this exhibit already with Rachael but we had other intentions on top of seeing the exhibit, which was to attend a lecture on how Opera and Roman art/times intertwine. So we kind of flew through the exhibit first and didn't really have time to read everything about each piece. I was kind of disappointed, but I knew I'd go back. So two nights ago (wednesday night) I decided to go to see it again, however when I arrived they were closed. (I had thought it was thursday when I was looking at the times of operation and they close at 5 except for Thurs-Sat they close at 9pm). Needless to say, I was frustrated but tried to make the best of being in downtown Seattle on a beautiful day by myself. The museum is down the street from Pike Place and close to the main downtown so I grabbed a coffee, put Death Cab for Cutie in my ears and walked the streets of the city trying to take in everything around me. I tried to notice every detail that i don't normally see when I'm with a group of friends. I walked around the city for about 3 hours (30 min. was spent at Barnes & Noble) and then headed back to my car re-energized from my adventure and imagry that still was fresh in my memory. Then on Friday I decided to try again and was successful in getting in. But of course I realized as I was walking up, that I left my membership card in my car. Cool Amy. Fast talking and many apologies got me my ticket into the exhibit. 

I learned a lot about the Roman government, emperors, citizenship, religion, and non-citizens. Most of the art was about the emperors and so I learned about Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, etc. and I think what helped me understand the most was a big family/emperor tree that was present when you first walk into the main room as seen in the photo above. I didn't realize there was such a struggle for power, which led inevitably to deceit, murder, and plot after plot to get rid of the person in power. Sounds like a very paranoid life...being an emperor. But rewarding I'm sure. Also what I thought was interesting was that the emperor was usually regarded as divine like a god as well as the leader. He would wear a veil and would act as priest, sacrificing bulls among other things. Anyways, I had a great time and found it to be very educational as well as inspiring.

"On them I have set no limits, space or time: I have granted them power, empire without end."

-Virgil Aeneid 1.278-279