I love revisiting museums, especially large ones, where I can go see works that are like old friends, and explore new ones. I was mostly unfamiliar with the pieces that we viewed on our tour, which travelled from Eastern Europe’s Byzantine icons (tragically many of which were lost in Iconoclasm), through the Renaissance in Northern Europe, and down to the Italian Peninsula. I’m a big fan of the Dutch masters, so it was great to see detailed and complex work like that, especially when it is on such a small scale.
The guide of the tour was helpful, if hard to follow. Unfortunately the crowds were too loud to allow everyone in the group to hear her information concerning the paintings. Usually I do not enjoy guided tours, but I think that the split between a tour and free exploration of the galleries was a good balance.
