Kimbell Art Museum Essay

On my visit to the Kimbell Art Museum there were two artifacts that I found interesting. The first one was “Urn in the Form of Cociyo, God of Lightning and Rain”. It is of Zapotec culture from the site Monte Albán Illa (in modern day Oaxaca, Mexico). This artifact stood out to me because of its weird and intriguing features. The eyes are shaped into two parts representing the clouds and the water needed to grow crops. Its snout extension has a combination of jaguar and snake allusions: the shape of the mouth represents the roar of the jaguar which symbolizes thunder, and the tongue is a snake’s flashing tongue which symbolizes lightning. The shape of the mouth is derived from the Olmec baby rain god called Were-jaguar. The dress is that of a priest, with the large disk-shaped earplugs and knotted collar showing his high status. The kilt with wave-like patterns represents elements of a thunderstorm. Next, the second artifact that I found interesting was “The Singing Priest”. This artifact was from the Mesoamerican civilization in Teotihuacán, Mexico. It is a wall fresco depicting ritual images. On the right there is a priest wearing a headdress, holding an incense bag on his left hand, and on his right hand, there is a stream of flower-decorated water coming out. He seems to be …show more content…
The descriptions on the art work were helpful especially when trying to explain what some of the elements symbolized. Just like any other museum, it was very quiet, but I did like that the museum was separated into two building so that I could get some fresh air in between. I know museum attendants are there to help visitors and to protect the exhibitions, but I feel like they’re breathing down my neck and waiting for me to destroy an artifact. I’ve been to a different museum before and I didn’t feel like this, but maybe it was because there were more people that