Weekend Update - Fourth of July Edition
Thursday after work I picked up a copy of From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and because it’s a short book, I finished it before I went to bed Thursday night. But I was still in a reading mood when I got up Friday, so I dragged out the last two Royal Spyness novels. I knew I’d already read the Twelve Clues of Christmas, but I’d forgotten that I’d already read Heirs and Graces until I was partway into it and it seemed really familiar.
I spent Friday in the reading chair (which is in the bedroom, the Comfy Chair is in the living room…) or on the bed, reading or napping. Yeah, it was raining, there might have been napping. That was pretty much all I accomplished on Friday. Reading two books. Well, 1.75 books, I finished the second one Sunday night.
I foolishly opened the windows and turned off the fan before I went to bed Friday night, because I usually sleep like a baby when it rains. I say foolishly, because I’d forgotten that I run the fan at night for a reason. Around 2:00 a.m. the damn noisy neighbors woke me up. There was some sort of random shouting, I don’t know, I cursed them and then rolled back over and tried to get back to sleep. But yeah, I’d forgotten that I close the windows and run the fan for white noise because there’s always something going on outside to wake me up (running footsteps, revving car engines, random shouting).
Not getting enough sleep was a problem because the alarm was set for 5:00 so that I could get to malterre and fbhjr’s house between 6:00 and 6:30 (OK, by 6:30….). I punched the wrong street into the Garmin, but still managed to arrive on time. We chatted during the long ride down to NYC, getting caught up on all the gossip that isn’t fit to print on LiveJournal. We arrived just before the museum opened at 10:00, and there was a large crowd waiting on the front steps for the door to open. The line out back, at the parking garage door? A handful of people.
I got in line and renewed my membership (because discount at the Gift Shop) and then we headed up stairs. We stopped by what Frank dubbed the urn of planning to talk about the plan for the day. I wanted to visit the Cranach Saint Maurice and hit the Arms and Armor hall to do some research for der Hauptmann. Holly wanted to see the Pre-Raphaelites and the Chinese carvings. So we scoped out where everything was on the map and figured out how we’d spend our day.
We started out upstairs, and headed towards the painting/portrait galleries. I knew where I remembered seeing Saint Maurice, but they’d moved him. (He used to be in a room with a Durer and a Holbein, because I remember coming around the corner, seeing the Durer and recognizing it, walking into the room, seeing the Holbein and drooling over it, then turning around and gasping because there he was, in all his glory…). So there was a bit of wandering around trying to find him. Holly and I found Maurice, but totally lost Frank in the process. I snapped some photos and then we wandered around the painting galleries for a bit, quickly looking at paintings while also keeping an eye out for Frank. In the process I found a painting with a baby minder! Since we now are working on producing Guild baby number three, finding documentable sources for keeping kids safe and out of the way has become one of my side research projects.
We finally headed off to the Chinese carvings, which were a bit of a hike and an elevator ride away. Frank was waiting for us up in the three small rooms on the third floor that held this exhibit. After checking out the jade and lacquer and other carvings we decided that since it was after 11:00 that we should do lunch. We discussed whether we wanted to eat lunch at the lunch trucks out front of the museum or eat in the Cafeteria downstairs? Since the Cafeteria was in the general direction of the Pre-Raphaelites, it won out. (Next time we’ll have to try the food trucks… I just wasn’t really looking forward to sitting outside in the sun on Saturday). The MET cafeteria turned out to have a much bigger selection than the one at the MFA (sushi bar, grille, pasta bar, sandwiches, salad bar, huge dessert station) but OMG, it was much pricier. But I guess that’s part of how they support the Museum. I had a grilled chicken sandwich that wasn’t bad. But I would have expected to pay about half of what it cost to buy the same thing at the cafeteria at work.
When we exited the Cafeteria we discovered that the ground floor of the rather round atrium had a bunch of renaissance drawings. We made the circuit and checked them out. Some were very nice indeed. It turns out it was part of the Robert Lehman collection. I thought this one was particularly interesting, because you could see the lines where they had been experimenting with the foreshortening.
[Aside - Because the light was just right I happened to notice a rather epic cobweb hanging off one of the high arches. OMG, I’d hate to be responsible for dusting those big galleries!]
Then we headed upstairs to the Pre-Raphaelites, where even though I really love Pre- Raphaelites art, I ended up taking bunch of photos of the large number Savonarola chairs (AKA X-chairs) they had scattered throughout the rooms. Because X CHAIRS! *squees*
Because I was really poking along, Frank and Holly peeled off to go at their own (higher) speed. We agreed to meet up in the Arms and Armor hall in a half hour. I made good use of my half hour. I finished up prowling the Pre-Raphaelites, zipped upstairs and found a bathroom, then booked up back to visit Saint Maurice again. I took a quick tour through some of the European Painting galleries (which have definitely been re-arranged, they’re listed under “New Installations” on the MET web site). There used to be a gallery that was pretty much different versions of The Annunciation, which I kinda miss. I think on my next visit I’ll have to spend some more time touring those galleries again. Then I swung back down to the American Wing, to snap a photo of a funeral effigy that looked suspiciously like one that I knew was in the MFA. Yep, turns out they’re copies of each other.
(MFA - http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/tomb-effigy-of-elizabeth-boott-duveneck-37897
MET - http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/10807)
And then I zipped into the Arms and Armor hall. I was doing some research for Stephen. I knew there were three or four suits of fluted German armor in the main (sunny) hall, but I wasn’t sure what was tucked into the side (dimly lit) galleries. I didn’t find much other than the three suits that I already knew about. But the nice thing about the way the MET has them displayed is that they were 1) well lit and 2) I could see the backs of the suits. Lots of reference photos were taken.
Then, since we weren’t quite museumed out yet, we trekked down to find the Faberge eggs. It was a very small exhibit (natch), but very beautiful. Then we hit the gift shop, were it didn’t take me long to find three huge reference books. Of course, one of them wasn’t in the system, which led to my book being held up in the air and much shouting with the lead cashier.
Well trained by our mothers, we hit the bathrooms before we got into the car for the long trip home. While waiting on the bench, I couldn’t wait and unwrapped my German Paintings book. The little old lady in a wheelchair next to me commented on the size of the book, and I explained that I was a German reenactor, so this book was exactly what I needed for research. I had to explain reenacting a little bit, then she asked where we did this thing? I told her the Connecticut Renaissance Faire. She said that she lives in Norwich, CT (I think? I get Norwich and Norwalk confused sometimes…), I said Oh, that’s where the faire is! At some point I found out that her young niece was from Nebraska. I asked where? She said Lincoln. I said my mother is from Crete (about 20 minute away from Lincoln). By this point we’re just having one of those “OMG Small World!” moments.
Apparently when it was my turn to hit the bathroom, they turned to Frank and asked him if what I’d told them was true? (Seriously? *laughs* I guess it was just a little too many coincidences for one conversation. One must be suspicious of strangers when one is in NYC I guess. Although why Frank would know if I was shitting them or not, I don’t know.)
On my way home I stopped at Kimball Farms for a chocolate Frappe, because the day just needed to end in ice cream. When I got home I spent the rest of my evening happily researching and pinning Landsknecht stuff on my Pinterest board until bedtime.
Sunday was supposed to be my housework day, but other than getting the laundry done, it wasn’t. I started reading one of my new reference books, and it turned out to be surprisingly readable for an art book (usually they’re terribly dry and boring), and I kinda got sucked into research again. I also managed to clean up my graphics folder some more because I was sorting through my museum photos, and ended up deleting another 1,100 images (seriously, why I hadn’t already deleted some of the accidental photos I took of the floor, I have no idea….)