Cayla Guinn
Novel Teens INK
National Gallery of Art
On July 17, 2015 I went on a field trip to the “National Gallery of Art”.
During this field trip, I was given a worksheet with questions related to the artwork I
found interesting. In this worksheet, I wrote about a case containing historic medals and
two sculptures. I found the sculptures interesting because I thought they were both unique
and eye catching.
The first art piece I saw was a case of medals featured in the Samuel H. Kress
collection. The material used to make the medals was bronze. Bronze is color of these
medals. This exhibit has a nice feeling to it because it's always nice to receive a medal. I
feel like the medals ended up more important than they were meant to be.
The next art piece is one of the two sculptures by Andrew W. Mellon. The title of
his piece was “Madonna and Child With Cherubim”. Glazed Terracotta was used to
create this sculpture. There were lots of colors in this piece, which I believe was to show
contrast. I believe this person made this to show their care for their religion. I personally
think the piece was well done; it showed how artist worked on it.
The final piece I saw was another sculpture. The title of this piece was “A Knight
of Santiago”. This sculpture was only made with painted terracotta. I believe the color
white was only used to show purity. This work is also well done.
These three exhibits interested me in their own different ways but the one I
enjoyed most was “Madonna and Child with Cherubim”. The colors in this piece were
captivating. Through this experience at the National Gallery of Art, I grew to respect art
on another level.