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    Open today 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
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    Ice Rink at the Sculpture Garden

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  • Exhibitions & Events

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    • Kid-Friendly Events

    Featured exhibition:

    The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art

    Now on view

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    Artle

    A refreshed experience for our puzzle game

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    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Ice Rink at the Sculpture Garden

    Step into a winter wonderland.

    Learn more

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    Featured exhibition:

    The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art

    Now on view

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    An elderly man kneels and leans back with his arms spread wide as he gazes up at another older man sitting in a chariot made of flames and pulled by white horses, which are held aloft by fawn-brown, puffy clouds, in this horizontal painting. Both men have pale skin and are partially bald with full beards. To our left, the kneeling man is mostly turned away from us, so we see the back of his ash-blond hair, a deeply furrowed brow, and a hooked nose. His head tips back and his mouth hangs open. He wears a long, mahogany-brown robe with a flax-yellow mantle draped over his left shoulder. One bare foot emerges from under the hem of the robe so we see the bottom of his foot, and his toes dig into the rock on which he kneels. The rock is painted with strokes of amber brown and sage, olive, and pine green, and it slopes down to a blue-green sea in the lower right corner of the painting. The man in the chariot, Elijah, is positioned across from the first man, to our right. With his body facing the kneeling man, Elijah turns his head to look up to the light streaming in from the upper left corner. Elijah’s right hand, on our left, grasps the white mantle wrapped around his tan robe, while the other hand extends to our right with fingers spread wide. A gold, spoked chariot wheel sits below that hand, facing us. Pale coral-peach flames curl around the wheel and flicker around Elijah’s legs. The flames continue to our left, blending into the bodies of the two muscular, white horses who climb the bank of sand-colored clouds that support the entire chariot. Each corner of the canvas has an inward curving, burnt-orange form, like mounting corners holding a photograph in an album.
    Giuseppe Angeli, Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire, c. 1740/1755, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.70

    Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire

    Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire

    Giuseppe Angeli · c. 1740/1755 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.70

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