Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (source Wikipedia)

restaurant at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art-it looks like an Italian courtyard, doesn't it?

a hallway at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art resembling a monastery walkway

One of the highlights of my time in Kansas City was our visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  Christi and I only had a few hours to spend perusing the art so I was very grateful that she had been there many times before and knew exactly where to go to see the best that the museum had to offer and she willingly shared her knowledge of the pieces we viewed.  I felt as though I had my own personal guided tour and really got a lot out of my short time there.  Yet for all that the museum has to offer, they charge no admission fee whatsoever.

We spent most of our time looking at and praying with religious art.  It seemed as though an entire floor was dedicated to works of faith from the Medieval and Renaissance periods.  Of course I loved it all and took so many pictures that I wore my phone battery right out!  When we completed the tour of the religious art and looked at some of the more modern pieces in the museum's collection I found that the non-religious art all appeared so blase and meaningless to me despite the talent and popularity of the artists.  Nothing compares to the beauty of our faith!  Some of the pieces I loved the most are pictured here.

How fascinating to find a relic of St. John the Baptist in a museum!  What an opportunity for reverence!

relic of St. John the Baptist

This French piece, Virgin and Child by Hayne de Bruxelles, touched me because of the loving way in which the Blessed Mother is shown holding Our Lord close to her cheek.  I recalled the passage from Hosea 11:14, "I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them."  Even more impressive is the fact that it is modeled after a painting by St. Luke himself which is reported to have had miraculous attributes.

This Altarpiece with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin from the Workshop of Gonzalo Perez, was massive, covering an entire wall.  The scene in the very center of the bottom row of Christ being lowered into the tomb, brought me to prayer as my heart was deeply moved by it.  How can you look at the sorrowful expression on the face of the angel who holds the Lord, and the wound in our Lord's side, and not be moved?

Most moving of all, this Head of Christ, attributed to Albert Bouts, kept me in rapt attention.  He's so beautiful and the suffering He endured so traumatic.  How He loves us!  I pray with Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald's prayer at the sixth station from The Holy Face in the Way of the Cross:  "Sorrowful Mother, lift my soul as a Veronica's veil to the outraged face of Jesus.  Beg Him to leave thereon the image of His Holiness and Beauty so clearly impressed that the beauty of creatures may not draw me from my allegiance to the beauty of Christ."