The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Nose to nose with a BRONTOSAURUS
Dinosaur mural reveals ‘precious’ details; renovation won’t be complete until 2024
NEW HAVEN — The dinosaurs are in Toronto; the birds, the mammals, the gems are all in storage.
Steel rises five stories in the courtyard that will become the grand, new Central Gallery of the renovated Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, which will reopen in 2024, delayed a few months by the pandemic. Meanwhile, one of its most popular exhibits has remained in place, and that means it’s getting a lot of attention.
“The Age of Reptiles,” the 16-foothigh, 110-foot-long mural painted by Yale University art student Rudolph Zallinger from 1942 to 1947, still overlooks the empty Great Hall. And while scaffolding makes it impossible to see in its entirety from below, it allows museum curators to go nose to nose with Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex. Zallinger knew little about dinosaurs when he was offered the commission as an undergraduate. “He was asked to consider this project as a senior at Yale College and said, ‘Yeah, I can come up with some
Wispy claws poke out of a flying dinosaur that is only about 2 inches long. The leaves on each plant are distinct, giving an ancient tree a three-dimensional appearance.
thing,’” said Christopher Renton, a Peabody spokesman. The fresco-secco mural was painted on dried plaster.
But while he knew his mural would be seen from a distance, Zallinger painted it with detail that can only be seen close up. Wispy claws poke out of a flying dinosaur that is only about 2 inches long. The leaves on each plant are distinct, giving an ancient tree a three-dimensional appearance.
“Those little things are precious to me,” said Mariana Di Giacomo, natural history conservator and the person most concerned about making sure the mural stays in good shape.
Other details are noticeable from the floor but easily missed. Bubbles rise around Brontosaurus wading in the water. Brown fronds on one plant show it’s reaching the end of its season. The eyes are unique to each dinosaur.
Zallinger even changed his mind about Tyrannosaurus rex’s teeth. One of the rear molars is painted over; another has been shortened a bit. “I don’t know why he did it, whether there were too many teeth or not, but I also like to see the human in the artist … making a decision about his work,” Di Giacomo said.
Her favorite dinosaur is the Edmontosaurus, a duck-billed reptile “that has the kindest face,” she said. “Those eyes really speak to me.”
She also likes the one mammal, a Cimolestes, at the left end (the mural proceeds through time from right to left). Cimolestes was an 8-inch, ratlike animal that ate insects. Zallinger added it after the mural was complete, Di Giacomo said.
“They had found all these mammals in the Mesozoic [Era], so he included it afterwards,” she said. “That’s a small treasure that you can find at the end” and leads the viewer toward the next hall, the Hall of Mammalian Evolution.
Di Giacomo checks “The Age of Reptiles” and Zallinger’s second mural, “The Age of Mammals,” twice a week, “unless there’s an event going on” with the construction. Recently, when demolition was taking place behind the wall, “I was staying most of the day inside that enclosure for most of two weeks,” she said.
“I always say I walk the mural because what I do is I walk along the enclosure and I’m looking for any differences that I see,” she said. At first she relied on a painting conservators’ report that listed existing cracks and defects, but she doesn’t need it that much now, she said. While she hasn’t memorized the mural, “I’m close to that at this point,” she said.
The mural is sealed inside a plywood and acrylic casing to keep out dust and to maintain consistent temperature and humidity. “It’s a microclimate, even though it’s a big mural,” Di Giacomo said.
She’s concerned about “the amount of dust that can occur during construction. We also worry about light levels. So when we’re not in here we can turn off two-thirds of the lights.”
Monitors keep track of temperature and humidity and notify the staff if the numbers get too high or low. “We get texts, emails and, if the levels are way bad, we actually get phone calls,” Di Giacomo said. Ideally, the air will stay close to 50 percent humidity and within four degrees of 68.
“We let the seasons drift, as it’s called in conservation,” Di Giacomo said. As the weather gets warmer or colder, inside the museum “it has to be very slow. … If it goes to 72, that’s OK, but it can’t go from 65 to 72 on the same day,” she said.
Mold is also a threat. “We also have filtered air coming into the space so the air is not stagnant,” she said.
Then there is vibration, which can come from drilling or demolition at some distance from the mural. Signs on the wall behind the murals warn the workers from Turner Construction to be careful. Vibration monitors sound an alarm regularly.
“We’re lucky to be working with these guys because they’re a fantastic team,” said Tim White, director of collections and research.
As exhibits were moved out and two that couldn’t be moved were boxed up, some of the original architecture is revealing itself, including a number of archways. “That’s part of the excitement about this project. There’s unknowns around every corner,” White said. “We knew these arches existed but nobody at the Peabody had seen them.”
Some of the arched doorways will allow for freer movement between galleries, but not all can be. One leading to the Hall of Mammalian Evolution is behind the “Age of Mammals” mural.
“This is a 1925 building, and by the 1960s a lot of these spaces were reconfigured [for] the second generation of exhibits,” White said. Renovating that first reconfiguration will mean opening up a lot of windows that were sealed shut. The new Peabody will shed a lot of light on its spaces.
“Can you imagine driving up Whitney Avenue and looking over and see a camel or a great elk?” asked White.
Some popular exhibits will come back but in new forms. The David Friend Hall of minerals and gems, as popular as the dinosaurs, opened just in 2016. “It was done as a dry run for the renovation,” said Chris Norris, director of public programs. “We’re going to largely re-create what was here,” White said.
The Hall of Connecticut Birds is gone, but “a large percentage of birds that were displayed here are coming back,” Renton said. Other architectural details will remain, such as the vaulted lobby with brickwork by Adolph Guastavino.
A major aim of the project is to increase the amount of space dedicated to research, classes and community activities. “We didn’t have places where teachers could take their classes,” Renton said. “We’re making a move to serve local schools.”
Gallery space will be increased 50 percent, allowing the Peabody to display more of its 14 million items. “The two big priorities are adding galleries, adding teaching spaces,” he said.
The first impression, however, will be the Central Gallery, with a three-story ceiling and a glass roof. Suspended from the ceiling will be a mososaur, Tylosaurus, a 40-foot-long seagoing reptile, acquired in 2014 and never displayed. It will appear to be chasing the 11-foot-long turtle, Archelon, which has a rear leg missing. “It survived an attack from something that was like a mososaur,” Renton said.
However, the turtle will look a little different. “One of the peculiar things is, they modeled a head for it … that was much too big.” It’s new head will come from another Archelon.
While fans of the Peabody await its reopening, some already are making plans. “We’re already getting a lot of requests for people who want to be the first people to be married” inside the new museum, Renton said.