Blind Rothko Viewers?

Today I saw this sign outside the Rothko Room in the Phillips Collection. The sign says PLEASE LIMIT VISITORS TO THE ROTHKO ROOM TO EIGHT, followed by a Braille translation underneath. A few questions arise. How is a blind person even supposed to view these paintings? Is this some type of modernist joke?

Below, a wider view of the sign reveals the (non-informative, entirely color-based) titles of the paintings inside. No Braille translations underneath.

P.S. The "extra" dot before each Braille word indicates capital letters.

Twisty Voice of God

What does the voice of God look like? "The Baptism of Christ" (late 15th century, by the Master of the St. Bartholomew Altar) depicts God's words using a banderole (speech scroll), the medieval equivalent of the comic book "speech balloon."

At this moment in Scripture, the Latin text (Vulgate Bible) describes a mysterious voice from the clouds ("ecce vox de nube, dicens" = lo! a voice out of the clouds, speaking). The painting transcribes the words of this voice on a curvy scroll unfurling from the sky: HIC EST FILIVS MEVS DILECTV[S] IN QUO MIHI BENE COMPLACVI = "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 17:5).

I'm intrigued by the curvy word scroll here; its shape forces you to read the twisting words "out of order." Does the sinuous scroll actually evoke the shape of nimbus clouds? Or do the twists and turns of the scroll evoke the ethereal sound of a cloudy voice from the heavens?


National Gallery of Art, November 2009.

Dégustation de Tripes

More from Julia Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian (NMAH), November 2009. Vintage French restaurant signs like these (exotic and quirky to American audiences at the time) were used as props for Julia Child's TV show. For more on tripe in French cuisine, try searching Larousse Gastronomique online.

Bon Appétit!

Anyone practicing the art of French cooking this Thanksgiving? Here's Julia Child's diploma from Le Cordon Bleu. The French text seems to reflect her status as the only woman in her graduating class: M. (for "Monsieur") is replaced by "Mrs." The reading "M. Mrs." is an unexpected quirk - it seems to me that the calligrapher could have simply added two more letters to make M. (Monsieur) into Mme. (Madame) or Mrs.

For more on Julia Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian, see the National Museum of American History website.

P.S. Mrs. Julia Child was not the first female graduate of Le Cordon Bleu; that honor actually goes to English chef Dione Lucas.

Algonquin Bible

Smithsonian American Art Museum, November 2009. The first bible ever printed in what would become the US was this Algonquin-language bible, printed by John Eliot in the 1660s.

Note: I was originally trying to find a suitably "Thanksgiving related" item for today's posting and the closest I could come up was this Puritan bible printed for Native Americans. Yes, the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony were not the same as the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation, but…close enough.

Parking Commandment

Capitol Hill, October 2007. St. Mark's Episcopal Church. Nice use of Early Modern English (King James Version).

Tibetan Mantra

Eastern Market, October 2009. Buddhist mantra in Tibetan script (ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པ་དྨེ་ཧཱུྃ། = om mani padme hum). First syllable, om, "symbolizes the practitioner's impure body, speech and mind" (according to the Dalai Lama). Padme = character from George Lucas film.

White House Walk: Helen Keller

Near the White House is The Extra Mile "Points of Light" Walkway which commemorates figures who embody the spirit of service and volunteerism. The marker for Helen Keller provides her name in raised letters and (underneath) in Braille.

The use of Braille is unique to this marker. While all the other commemorative markers on this walk make use of raised letters and raised relief bust portraits, the use of those design motifs in this particular marker seem to have additional significance.

Landmark Typo

Eastern Market, this morning. "Capitol Hill" is proudly misspelled as "Capital Hill." Seriously, is it that hard to proofread these things in advance?

For what it's worth, the text accompanying the Eastern Market logo is spelled correctly throughout the building itself (see below).

Arabic Word of the Day

This photo was taken just about two years ago (December 2007), when the language center where I work posted this Arabic word of the day: ثلج (snow). The sign includes the word (in original script), its pronunciation, meaning, and its use in a sentence.

I overheard someone make this comment as I was taking the photo: "There's actually an Arabic word for snow?"