Thank You, John and Mable Ringling

Monday morning I spent a couple of hours at the Ringling  Museum.

My thanks to John and Mable for placing in the will that this must be open one day a week to the public for free. Monday is free day for Art Museum and the grounds.

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is a 66-acre estate which includes the Museum of Art; the Venetian-Gothic Cà d'Zan mansion, winter-residence of John and Mable Ringling; historic grounds and gardens; the 18th- century Historic Asolo Theater; and the Circus Museums.

I did not go for the Museum of Art but for the 66 acres of grounds, but the heat drove me into the 73 degree museum, so I grabbed a shot of my favorite room while I cooled down.

This Italian Renaissance-style museum in was built in 1929. The Ringling Museum of Art houses a wide collection of paintings from the 14th to the 19th centuries.

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there are more than 10,000 objects that include paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts and include paintings and sculptures by the

 Old Masters including Rubens, van Dyck, Velázquez, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, El Greco, Gainsborough and more. Also, there are many Modern Art paintings, but since most of the artist are still living I was not allowed to take photos. for more info click on  Ringling Art Museum and for past post see labels on side bar for Ringling 

Virgin and Child C. 1490, a glazed terracotta made to look like carved Marble. It is my favorite piece in the Art section.

 These date back to the 1600's and are so amazing.

no photos to show of the Modern Art since photography is prohibited in that section

I spoke to the docent about a painting in the modern art room, and asked Why would anyone hang that on their wall? it looked like a skeleton that had melted and turned into the terminator robot. He said that is a painting of a mother and her child.

I said "so you say" and he about split his sides and this joke I found makes me wonder if the writer saw what I saw.

My young son and I were looking at an abstract painting in an art museum.

I said "It is supposed to be a woman holding a child."

"Well", replied my son, "why isn't it?"

Tomorrow my favorite part of the museum, the courtyard and my header was created from my favorite statue.