Whew.

This is the painting our son reached out to touch today at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts when I grabbed and pulled back his hands just in time.

Jason and Medea by Gustave Moreau (1865)

You can most certainly see the appeal to touch by a five year old boy, can't you?


While he didn't last through the complete exhibit of The Birth of Impressionism (oh, we'll go back! Can you IMAGINE seeing Whistler's Mother in person? Or Manet's Woman With Fans?!!) we were there long enough to examine and admire and discuss an enormous painting of Sarpedon, the slain son of Zeus. So cool, says the boy. Death. Blood. Angels. Battle. Gods. Awesome. "My favorite," he says.