June 15th. Dulles Airport.
We had time today in the morning, before our evening flight, and so we drove into D.C. and visited the National Gallery. I had been there before, but I don’t know the museum well. In general, it aroused in me the same feelings that D.C. does: I am kind of impressed, but I don’t fall in love with the place. But we did have some fun. Catherine was caught up in the Dutch stilllifes (wow, three consecutive l’s in one word) – especially the ones with food in them – and I thought the Rubens of Daniel in the Lions’ Den was particularly appropriate for our African trip. It’s a lovely, striking painting – though also with a decided comic-book quality to it.
But it was not until we were just about to leave that I saw something that really entranced me: the Van Eyck Annunciation, a small painting, strange, but exquisite, with Gabriel’s amazing psychedelic wings, and his golden Latin words flowing from his mouth, with Mary’s flowing back at him, in reverse: INIMOD ALLICNA ECCE.
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