An update and two previews

Almost a year ago, I took a break from writing this blog after news of my mother's terminal illness. Since her death in April, I've been clearing up the family home and helping with estate matters, but I've also managed some art-related travel which has provided new stuff to write about. As a preview, here are two lovely things I saw.

The Chester Beatty Library in Dublin very kindly gave me access to their wonderful Akbarnama and even more wonderful Minto Album, a collection of  the finest Mughal miniatures. This detail (below) from a page of the Akbarnama exemplifies the focus and dedication of the artists. It's the bottom far-right corner of a page depicting a fight between Akbar and a nobleman at court. All the action is elsewhere but for the Mughal artists, detail was everything. Look at the men's clothing, the expressions on their faces (which are only about 5 millimetres high, by the way) and that gorgeous carpet! (Apologies for the poor picture quality, I really need a new phone with a better camera.)

At the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, I finally saw this famous Buddha, regarded as the earliest Chinese Buddha with a verifiable date (338 AD). It is in all the textbooks, but it wasn't until I saw it upfront that I realised, firstly, that it's taller than I expected (40cm high); and secondly, it is surprisingly cheerful. It's a very three-dimensional piece - it looks slightly different from each angle - but seen up close, it has a happy smile, like a shy cousin of the cheery Buddhas of Kushan India (which of course it is).

I'd hoped to visit the Indian and South-East Asian collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art but as the museum very thoughtfully closed the galleries for refurbishment without any warning on their website or at the ticket booth, having taken my $25 entry fee first, [deep breaths] there is nothing I can write about that. Except that it reminded me how lucky we are in the UK to have free access to museums. Looking at the state of things, I suspect that cannot last.