I have visited the MFA many times but after my last visit the building resembled to me the palace of Knossos. The MFA and the palace have similar floor plans. Their entrances have monumental qualities; in Knossos the entrance has a religious aspect to it with the entrance facing the mountain that is connected to Zeus. Whereas, the MFA has a façade like the romans and once you enter you are greeted with a massive staircase. There are tons of rooms in both buildings and each room will have a different personality and different use. Knossos has rooms for storage, sacrifice and many other uses. The MFA has rooms for different collections of art from ancient to American. Even a central courtyard is within both buildings. It never dawned on me before but these buildings have many qualities that are similar.

Jillian Zerbinopoulos: Blog Response 3

This artifact can be connected with the Peruvian Settlements, but could also be connected with settlements in Central America. The artifact is a human turning into a jaguar. Many of the settlements in Southern and Central America believed in a spiritual world and how everything had a spirit within, not just humans and animals. Shamans were the only people who could communicate between the worlds. In the Chavín culture believed that the jaguar was a symbol of the supernatural world (spiritual). They also believed that humans could transform or shape-shift with the aid of hallucinogenic drugs. This sculpture is a representation of this idea.

Nicholas Torres - Blog 3

I’ve been to the MFA multiple times, but few times to actually just look at the artifacts. After wandering the maze of the museum I came upon the Egyptian room, just the trip reminded me of the lengths the Egyptians went to protect their burial grounds. The lighting in these rooms is often darker than the rest of the museum, maybe to better replicate the dark of the inside of the pyramid or even how the darkness and light would interact in a hypostyle hall. In one of the main rooms is the collection of structural Egyptian artifacts. Here you can clearly see what we were shown in class about how the Egyptians constructed their columns, how massive they are. Several other artifacts included the gate and the hieroglyphics displaying giving to the pharaoh. All these together in the small room, gives a good sense of Egyptian architecture.

Casey Delia-Blog 3

Approaching the MFA I was beginning to think about which section I would head towards upon entering. Instead I found myself analyzing the building as a whole rather than one artifact inside the MFA. I instantly noticed the connection between both the aesthetics of the building and it's purpose or meaning to that of an ancient Greek temple. The triangular pediment is displayed in both the Huntington facade of the MFA as well as on many Greek temples. The use of columns is another attribute both share. As for the usage, the Greek temple was a place for worship and gathering; a place where important things about the cultures past were represented. With an exception to worship, the MFA has very similar ideas of purpose. It's a place to look upon the past and gather. It my not be our own cultures past but in a way it still is a connection to the temples of ancient Greece.

Charles Vesper: Blog Response 3

The ancient egyptians believed that they should take all their belonging with them to the after life, this included their generals, queens, and army. The sculpture to the left is the lid of General Kheperre's sarcophagus, which was discovered in Giza who was viewed at the same level as the royal family. However he was not actually buried in the Great Pyramid, he elected to be buried in a necropolis near by. The term necropolis refers to a cemetery and we know the term polis means city, which this was a former city before it became the spot for people of stature to be buried. The cemetery was a monument that was build using cased stone like the pyramid and also contained funerary figures. The shape of his sarcophagus was brought back to culture norm during Dynasty 26 and is an example of later form associated with the god Osiris. Osiris was the fertility god and then becomes the ruler of the afterlife when he died in his brothers hands. Isis his wife was known as the Lady of the Pyramids and has a small temple nearby Kheperre's tomb. He was buried highest up within the necropolis which showed his authority and markings on his sarcophagus allude to the location of the afterlife. This symbol was called the Great Bear constellation which resembles the big dipper.

Alex Griffin Blog Response 3:

After Learning about the architecture of Ancient Rome, I was drawn to the Structure and form shown in many of the Roman and greek sculptures while visiting the MFA. In History, we learned how Roman and Greek architecture is characterized with importance of form, order and structure. Temples were axial and symmetrical sculptural pieces, seemingly ideal and perfect.  Similar to this was the sculpture of these cultures. Although Roman sculpture at many times portrayed a more realistic view of people, it can be said that both Roman and Greek sculpture aimed to portray people in their ideal form. 

Adam Parsons: Blog Entry 3

The Chinese have always been a culture rich with tradition and ritualistic practices, yet these cultural norms have never quite existed in a rigid condition, but instead they evolved with each dynasty that was in power at the time. Interestingly enough, there were practices that were inherently understood that could be traced through the tales of history.

One example of this that I observed at the Museum of Fine Arts was the various engraved stone tomb slabs from an assortment of different Chinese dynasties. Including the Han, Qin, and Zhou Dynasties, the imagery carved on the differing pieces showed that history does not always have to directly relate to specific dates and events, but rather it can begin to express the sharing of common cultural values that begin to span beyond their immediate time period, as in this case represented through the similar tomb faces.