Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

You may be reading the title of this post and wondering if it's just a bunch of nonsense words, but it isn't.  "Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek" is the name of the museum we visited today.  "Ny" means "new" in Danish, "Carlsberg" is a reference to the museum's founder (the Carlsberg beer magnate), and "Glyptotek" is a Danish variation on the French word "glyptotheque" which just means a collection of sculptures.  I did not know that last part until I started writing this post, so there's a new factoid for some upcoming pub trivia night.

The museum is mostly filled with -- you guessed it -- sculpture and statues!  The Egypt section also has a few mummies and other grave goods.

Room after room is filled with Greek and Roman sculptures, reliefs, and busts.

Some of the faces seem to have lost their most prominent feature.  Ever wonder where all the noses are?  Well wonder no more!  It used to be common practice for antiquities dealers to "fix" damaged statues by plastering in what was missing -- noses, ears, fingers, etc.  The Glyptotek has removed all these helpful anachronistic additions to their own display case.  This type of collection has its own name, too -- a "nasothek".  There's some more useless trivia for you!

Gives new meaning to the phrase "Got your nose!"

I'm not much of a sculpture fan, but I am a huge fan of that awesomely 80's Ray Harryhausen movie "Clash of the Titans".  So in the modern sculpture exhibit I was instantly drawn to this image of Perseus slaying Medusa.

As I said, sculpture's not really my thing.  But I do love Impressionist paintings and this museum had a really nice collection including masterpieces by Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, and Manet.  New to me was this pointillist-style work "View of Mont Blanc" by Paul Signac.  I had never heard of him before but will definitely look for more of his work.  This was definitely the highlight of the museum for me.  Well...this and the noses, of course.