The Met - June 3rd

On June 3rd I visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York City. I found everything about the museum to be stunning, from the stairs out front to the interior architecture and the amazing art on display. I am by no means an art expert, I must have missed that gene, everyone else in my family is. I truly felt that having a defined purpose as to what I needed to discover while at the Met was very helpful because there is so much to see while you are there. I went on this adventure with a friend and our two daughters. The girls were very good considering they are only six, but thought it was fun to take my picture as I “worked hard” admiring everything on display.

Here are some pictures of the outside of the Met. I zoomed in on some of the statues on the outside of the building. The place is gigantic, I believe it takes up about 8 or so blocks and is by Central Park. When I was little I thought museums were boring, I was really surprised to see so many people with their children (not complaining) there on a Sunday morning.

The lobby of the Met was spectacular with warm but bright lighting, the columns and balconies got my attention, with their ancient Greece look. We were greeted by very friendly people. I love it when I’m asked if $10 is agreeable to me as an entrance fee.

The first gallery we went to was the Greek and Roman gallery. There was so much to look at I did not know where to start. This gallery is described by the museum as “The spectacular redesign and reinstallation of the Museum’s superb collection of classical art” and opened to the public on April 20th. The first room I went to had the ten marble fragments of the Great Eleusinian Relief. This display was interesting because it was a copy, the ten fragments were set into a cast of the original relief. The copy is sharper than the original which follows the style that is current in Augustan Art. The goddess of agriculture is on the left, her daughter Persephone is on the right, the young boy is possibly Triptolemos, who was sent to teach men how to cultivate grain. The caption of the display shows in gray what has been restored.

Ten marble fragments of the great Eleusinian relief.

Roman Augustan period 27 B.C. - A.D 14

Found at Eleuses now at The Met

When I went to the second floor I walked by a door way that had sulight blasting out of it. Naturally I had to see what it was. This doorway was to the balcony above the "Italian Rennisance Bronzing Room". (How did I miss this when I was on the first floor?)

When I walked onto the balcony and looked below I could see a statue with a sword in one hand and a head in another. I wondered if this was the Greek myth about Medusa, I had to go back down and investigate. Sure enough this was Perseus with the head of Medusa. Of course I was so excited because I had just taken a class where I had to research Greek Goddesses, I was thrilled to see something where I knew the story behind the statue. I had written a paper on Athena, the Goddess of War, who had turned Medusa into what she is and helped Perseus destroy her. The statue is made of marble and was carved in Rome. I had to keep walking around the statue to take in all of the detail. It was interesting how the artist did not drop a detail at any point. I thought that the back part of the robe would be lacking in detail and not have folds in the robe, it had just has much detail as the front draping piece. The detail flowed, I could not find a flaw anywhere.

Perseus with the head of medusa.
Marble
Antonio Canova (1757-1822)



As I moved on to view paintings I was anxious to see what I would recognize from my dad’s art books or from what I remembered from previous art classes.

Norman Rockwell is always a favorite of mine. I have always been intrigued by his realistic style that always seems to either be humorous or serious. This painting, The Town Meeting, makes me wonder what the topic of discussion was. Look at the way the main character seems to have a captivated audience. Is he agreeing or disagreeing? Whatever the point of discussion, it appears to be serious. This painting is oil on composite. The strokes are so smoth the painting looks like it could be a photograph.

Norman Rockwell, American, 1894-1978
Town Meeting - 1943



Of course I had to find Vincent van Gogh’s “Vase of Roses”. The caption to the painting says that before van Gogh’s left the asylum at Saint Remy he painted four still lifes. He described these paintings as “great bunches of flowers, violet irises, big bouquets of roses…” The roses and the table top in this particular painting were originally a pale pink, but have faded. People around me must have gotten annoyed. Aside from putting my head through the canvas, I was trying to see the different angles of the paint. I hope this comes through in my pictures. The painting is oil on canvas. I have always been attracted to paintings where the strokes of paint look like they are rising off of the canvas, the best way I can describe it is like the strokes of paint are a smoothed out, textured, lump of paint.













My experience at the Met was wonderful. I hope I have set the stage for what some people might seek out while they are visiting the Met. Here are more pictures from the Met that caught my eye that I felt were interesting and stunning.



Pablo Picasso
Woman in White
1923
Oil On Canvas







Edvard Munch
Vampire
1894
Oil on canvas







Henry Matise
Dance 1912 (naturalism)
Oil on canvas (looked almost like water color to me)
If you look closely at this painting you can see what appears to be pencil lines. An interesting pamphlet was handed out for this painting asking, "Can you tell what is near and what is far? Where are the figures standing?"
Those are some questions to ponder before you see this painting.





Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
French, 1834-1917
Dancers Practicing at the Bar





John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925)
A street in Venice, 1880-82
Oil on Canvas