Dumbarton Oaks

Went to Dumbarton Oaks estate and museum with a friend on Wednesday. It's a little hidden treasure in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The museum is free. To walk in the gardens costs $8.00. We'd planned to do both, but mother nature surprised us was a sudden, protracted and rather rambunctious thunder storm, so the garden tour got nixed.



The museum is not large and it's know for two areas of interest, the Byzantine Christian Empire and the Pre-Columbian artifacts of the meso-American civilizations.

There is also a smattering of Antiquities (mostly mediterranean) and Renaissance (mostly Italian).

Here are three images to give you a flavor of the offerings, The central panel in ivory of a Byzantine triptych, A mosaic from a Roman villa in Turkey, and a Renaissance cabinet. All exquisite.

Being a museum, they also mount special exhibitions from time to time and the show currently taking up the lion's share of the Byzantine galleries was an exploration on the history of the cross as a religious symbol through art and how its depiction has evolved. Most of the works are from the Byzantine era, but in one gallery a display included works by Andy Warhol, which was an odd surprise.

Physically the museum uses the back section of the original estate house with one wonderful exception. The orange extension on the map is the Pre-Columbian galleries which opened in 1963 and were designed by Philip Johnson. They are amazing.

The Pre-Columbian Galleries combine so harmoniously the interior with the exterior using travertine and wood and glass and bronze, on some level you feel like you are experiencing the art as though in the actual jungles of Central American. While my friend and I were there this glorious electrical storm was also occurring just beyond the safety of the glass. A special effect that elevated the experience.

The following are all from photos I took of some of the wonderful objects to be found there.