Weekend Update - Morgan and MET
Saturday I took my first trip into New York City. Yes, you read that right, I’m 45 years old and have never been into The City. I drove in with malterre and fbhjr to see the Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands exhibit at The Morgan library. As a wonderful unexpected bonus, we also visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art while we were in the city.
The plan was to leave at 6:00, so we’d get into the city before traffic got too heavy. I was, not unexpected, a few minutes late getting on the road. And then the Garmin took me past the turn-off for their house, so I had to make a couple of U turns (they live off one of those roads with Jersey barriers down the middle of the road). I ended up arriving around 6:15, to be met in the parking lot. I grabbed my stuff, hopped in their car, and we were on to road, stopping briefly at a rest area McDonald’s for breakfast. The drive was probably 3 hours or so, but it passed quickly, chatting with Holly (Frank is much more the strong silent type. Although he contributed the occasional story, like the fact that CAD has spell check because when he asked, as part of a focus group “if you could add one feature, what would it be?” he quickly responded “spell check” and all the other people in the focus group said, “Yeah! Spell check!”)
We drove in along the Hudson, past the Cloisters. When we crossed Broadway, Frank pointed out the street signs. We crossed Central park, and I recognized the Guggenheim when we drove past it. It was still early, before 10:00, and I was surprised at the lack of traffic on the streets. (You know, my only experience with New York City is what I’ve seen on TV and movies.)
We parked in the parking garage at the Met. Which wasn’t open quite yet. There was a long line out the front door, waiting to get in when they opened. Luckily, we went in through the basement door, where the line was only one or two people long. Since we were planning on coming back, we bought our tickets to the MET to save time when we returned, then walked upstairs, to exit out the front door. There was a beautiful, 1.5 times size life Greek statue right when we came up the stairs. I was admiring the fact that he was intact, with all his bits and pieces (nose, fingers, penis). And then we walked through a large gallery of greco-roman nudes, where every single statue had been castrated, probably by someone who sought to save the innocent from the horror of looking at nekkid manly bits in a museum. It makes me sad when censorship leads to destroying art. =(
We walked out the front door, down the stairs, and Frank hailed us a cab. Having only ridden in a cab a handful of times in my entire life, I have zero taxi hailing skills. I wasn’t surprised to see a credit card swiper in the back seat, but I was surprised to find a TV screen in front of me. Really? Is there anywhere in the world that doesn’t force television on us these days? *growls*
Our cabbie didn’t know where the Morgan Library was, so Frank pulled out the iPad and gave him the closest cross street. Whatever road we were driving down (Park Avenue?) had several large metal sculptures of roses, with scattered pink petals all down the patch of grass down the center of the road. We drove through a building (The Hemsley Building, made me think of Leona….) and finally pulled up in front of a church a block away from The Morgan. There wasn’t much of a line, so we quickly bought our tickets, and then wandered into the big glassed center courtyard. Unlike the Met, there weren’t any large signs to guide us to the exhibit we were there to see. There were a few glass cases with reliquaries in the courtyard, Frank and I snapped a few photos before we were told to stop. *sad face*.
With no idea which direction to head, we took the elevator to the second floor, only to be confronted with a sign stating “This gallery closed to install /next exhibit/” So we rode back down again, and headed towards another door, which turned out to be an exit, not the way to a gallery. Finally we tried a door that actually led somewhere, the Library part of the Morgan Library. First we walked around Mr. Morgan’s Study, where I spotted a pair or paintings of Martin Luthor and his wife Katharina von Bora in the book vault (no really, it’s a bank vault for his most valuable books!). I was playing “Who’s the saint?” trying to identify the woman with the arrow in this painting (turns out it was Saint Barbara) when Holly mentioned that there was a guide to the room. I went over and picked one up (sadly, you had to leave it behind when you left) and walked around reading the descriptions of each piece of art.
There were a couple of beautiful paintings by Hans Memling in the library. We saw a couple other pieces of his at the Met, so he’s sort of my “new artist” of the day. He’s not someone who had been on my artistic radar before now.
There was beautiful stained glass in the windows, half hidden behind heavy velvet curtains, which sadly weren't even mentioned in the guide to the room. One window mentioned Love (Amor) and Truth (Veritas), which made me think of that line in Moulin Rouge about “truth and beauty.” The other window had an interesting image of a cripple who had both a peg leg and a crutch. Then Holly pointed me towards a couple of painted plates from right around our period. (It was really sweet how Holly and Frank kept pointing out stuff from the Guild’s period all day. I really appreciated that!)
The next room, the rotunda, had an amazing painted ceiling. The whole thing was painted in that faux renaissance style that was so popular at the turn of the 20th century. But since I know my historical costuming, it was a bit confusing to see everything from Roman to high medieval to renaissance all smashed together on one ceiling. And they’d really slathered on the gold paint accents, it was practically 3-D in places.
The next room, the Librarian’s office, was one of those two story libraries that I think are so cool, with a balcony around the upper story of the room. The lower walls were filled with very early cylinder seals (Babylonian, Abyssinian, etc.) on one side of the room, and gothic jewelry (from the original Goths) on the other. One of the last things I looked at before I left the room was a gold and jeweled book cover where the description mentioned that the cover included the symbols of the Four Evangelists (man, lion, ox, and eagle). I realized yet again just how much I have to learn in order to be able to think like and properly reenact a devout renaissance Catholic. Almost immediately upon entering Mr. Morgan’s Library I spotted two illuminated manuscripts on display that gave me two of the symbols, but I had to look up the others when I got home. The Library included another impressive display of ceiling art. *sighs* I really love impressive libraries, with two stories of old books, enormous fireplaces, beautiful carpets….
After we left that little wing of the building, we found the exhibit we were actually looking for. The first thing you noticed when you walked in the room were four mannequins dressed in reproduction costumes. And they were just disappointing. All four of them just looked wrong somehow. The fabrics weren’t quite right, the cut wasn’t quite right. I’m almost positive that there wasn’t enough fabric in the Houppeland. Heck, there didn’t even seem like there was enough fabric in the men’s cotte! Nothing draped the way it’s supposed to. And both pairs of men’s hosen had lacing up the back of the ankles. (I didn’t think to check to see if they were properly cut on the bias or not.) There just wasn’t any grace to them. And the images they’re based off of are all graceful.
The replicas were from the Netherlands (borrowed from a Dutch museum?) and I couldn’t help but wonder why on earth they went overseas, when they could have found better garments much closer. laracorsets lives in New Jersey, and the gown she made for Stephen is just so much more beautiful than any of the reproductions they had on display. And the cotehardies chargirlgenius has made for her husband look way better than the one they had on display. (On the way home I think I figured out part of the problem. The reproductions had never been worn so they looked like costumes instead of clothing.)
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the exhibit. The first thing I noticed was the weird spellings (cote hardy instead of cotehardie). Many of the illuminations were tiny, and because the stands they were displayed on were rather tall, sometimes I couldn’t see them very well. If they’d lowered everything by a foot, I would have been able to lean over them and inspect them, instead of often standing on my toes trying to catch a glimpse. And the descriptions were odd too, and not just the spelling. Each piece has an attempt at a clever headline, then a description of the fashions in the image. But I didn’t feel like they were telling me anything I couldn’t see for myself. Yes, the sleeves are tight. Yep, the hemline has raised a bit. OK, so he’s got a wasp waist and padded chest. By the time I was halfway around the room I’d decided that the author was probably a book curator and not a fashion curator, because I didn’t feel like I was learning a whole lot from reading the placards. I did have a short conversation with one of the other patrons who praised the online exhibit, so if you haven’t been, you’ll probably get more out of the virtual exhibit than the actual exhibit. Unless you really want to see pages from Gaston Phoebus’s Hunt Book (which was the highlight for me). In fact, I pretty much skimmed past the last 1/3 of the room.
Holly and I had lost Frank by this time, so we headed upstairs, only to find that (ha ha!) nothing to see here, closed to set up next exhibit. We headed back downstairs, where we found Frank again, and headed to the Gift Shop. Where I really waffled over buying the exhibit catalog. It was $90, and while I thought maybe I would get more out of the book than the exhibit? But that’s a lot of money, and it’s a period I don’t really “do.” I oogled a couple of expensive Taschen books (they’re a German publisher known for their beautifully illustrated books) but I ended up leaving the gift shop with a single postcard. Frank, on the other hand, left with a shopping bag full of books.
We walked a couple of blocks while we discussed what we wanted to do for lunch (it was almost noon). We ended up eating in a Greek deli called Burger Heaven. Why do I think they were Greek? Because you could get Tzatziki sauce or feta with just about everything.
After lunch we caught another cab back to the Met. The trip back was a little bit longer, as one of the streets was blocked off (for some sort of parade?) and we had to detour around it. By this point in the day, traffic was pretty congested, and I was impressed with our driver’s ability to dart in and out between the cars. And once we escaped the congestion, his ability to time it so that as we approached every light it turned green. Go New York cabbie!
When we got back to the Met, security hassled Frank for his iPad. Apparently computers are not allowed in the museum (I wonder why not?). But we got back inside, and after he dropped the books in the car, we headed off to the Arms and Armor section to look at sharp pointy things. *glee* It was hard to go zipping by so many interesting medieval bits (Reliquaries! Furniture! Combs!) but we had a destination to get to.
We wandered some half-lit rooms full of shields and helmets (including one shaped like a chicken!) and swords. I continued with my streak of accurately dating armor based on clothing and shoe shapes (I was right on the nose with this one, because it is shaped just like Gustav’s sleeves!). I was taking pictures of powder horns (made from antler) when Holly dragged me down to check out the purdy purdy decorative swords. They had sparkly gemstones and gold and etchings and Wedgewood blue decorations. Soooooo pretty!
Out in the well lit courtyard there was a troop of four mounted knights on well armored horses, surrounded by cases of pole arms and suits of armor. I inspected helmets, checked out breastplates, oogled saddles and horse armor, and photographed pole arms. My favorite piece was probably this suit belonging to Charles V’s brother, later Emperor Ferdinand I, both because of the ridiculous codpiece, and the etching of the Virgin Mary on the breastplate. And the Guild really needs to bling up our pikes and halberds. I’m just going to have to buy up a bunch of upholstery fringe and spend a weekend making our polearms look spiffy.
After a quick peek at the Japanese armor, we headed back towards the medieval galleries, where I indulged my fascination with reliquaries. I snapped a ton of photos of gold caskets and folding triptychs. There was this great piece, the Shrine of The Virgin, where Mary opens up to display a fully grown Jesus inside her. They had one of Mary Magdalene’s teeth inside a crystal reliquary. (I wonder if she had hundreds of teeth? The same way that John the Baptist had at least four heads?) And I hadn’t realized that the double headed eagle was a state symbol for the Byzantine Empire (wonder if that’s how it got adopted for the Holy Roman Empire?).
After wandering about half of the medieval section, we took a break to check out the art of the Americas. There is a huge sunny sculpture garden under a big glass roof. Inside the door is a fabulous Tiffany stained glass window that is just jaw dropping gorgeous. The courtyard is filled with white marble statues, bronzes, and other sculptures, mostly nudes, but a few wearing classical draperies. Upstairs, around the mezzanine, were American glassware, silver, and pottery.
Once we’d soaked up enough sunlight and American art we dove back into the gloom that was the dimly lit medieval section. This time we wandered the grand sculpture gallery. Most of it was religious, so I was playing “Who’s the Saint?” again. There’s Jerome with his lion, there’s Catherine with her wheel, wonder who that one is? Actually Who’s the Saint probably started up again with the wall of stained glass with a selection of Saints that I’d never heard of before (which is probably why I didn’t realize their names were written on their halos until after I’d read the placard and stared at them again for a little while). Saint Aleidis (who is apparently so obscure that she doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry) and Saint Roch (?) and someone else whose name I can’t read in my photos. I’m rather chuffed with myself for recognizing the origin of one of the little wooden statues. It was of Mary Magdalene, and she was wearing a headdress that made me think of Anne of Cleves. Now that I’m home I’ve had a chance to look her up. The placard said she was from Kalkar and it turns out Kalkar is a town in Kleves. Go me!
We took another detour out of the middle ages, through a gallery with two portraits I know I’ve seen before (possibly on lamodeillustree? Yep, here's one - http://lamodeillustree.livejournal.com/220412.html) into another sculpture courtyard. Again, there was plenty of sunlight streaming in from the skylights and big windows on one end of the gallery. (OMG, I could totally fall in love (lust?) with some of the male nudes. Nice buns on that one!!!!)
We decided to try to find the Alexander McQueen exhibit (who is probably most famous for dressing Lady Gaga several times before his untimely suicide in 2010). We asked at the info desk, but when we found out way upstairs, the line to get into the gallery was staggeringly long. Well, New York is a city full of fashionistas after all. We decided that we’d rather look at more art than wait in line to look at weird clothes, and headed off into the European Painting galleries.
I only recognized one or two artists or paintings in the first couple of rooms. But then we found some El Grecos, and I spotted a self-portrait of Rembrandt. And there were more paintings that I recognized, or liked, or was interested in staring at for a bit to look at costume details or other little fiddly bits. And then suddenly, from across the room, I spotted two Holbeins! I was sure of it. I zipped through the doorway and checked the placards. Yep, Holbeins! (or at least “from the workshop of…”) Then I turned around and spotted the Dürer. And then turned all the way around and there he was… Cranach’s Saint Moritz! I admit it, I squeed. Not only is he the Guild’s patron saint, but of all the images that I’ve been able to find of him so far, that’s my favorite. And I got to see him in person. *glee* Definitely my favorite room in the entire museum!
The next couple of rooms were also right up my alley, medieval portraits, both religious and secular. There was Breughel’s the Harvesters, and a couple more Hans Memling portraits. There was what seemed like an entire room full of nothing but images of the Annunciation. (Ah ha Holly! The Web site clears up the mystery of what the keys symbolize. “The two keys-"clés unis"-in the stained-glass window and on the carpet identify the patron as a member of the Burgundian Clugny family.”)
And finally, after passing through yet more galleries of portraits, we were back at the grand staircase. We headed downstairs and in the Museum Store. Oooooh! Remind me that when I win the lottery, I’m buying all my jewelry at the Met gift shop. Such lovely things. I looked in vain for some religious iconography to add to Magda’s tent. They had a small resin statue of the Madonna and child, but I didn’t love it and it was a bit pricy. And they didn’t have any reliquaries. I know, too obscure. I’m probably the only person crazy enough to want to take one home with them.
All day Holly and Frank had been wonderful about pointing me towards things that might interest me. But the best time was in the bookstore. I’d just started browsing one side of the bargain book table when Holly handed me a book titled The World of the Saints. Now, I’ve been looking for a book of saints for about a year now. Preferably one that focuses on medieval saints (and not anyone who has been canonized in the past 400 years), that might include some of the medieval saints that appear in artwork, but may have been de-canonized when the Catholic church tidied up the feast calendar (they decided that a lot of medieval saints might not have actually existed, and they were stricken from the list). This book not only has all that, it’s organized as an illustrated feast calendar, and has a symbol glossary in the back! *glee* While I was flipping through the slightly damaged copy, she found one that was still in the plastic wrap. Really, I’m just so thrilled with this book. And bonus! It was marked down from $60 to $20. *HappyDance*
Then Holly led me to book purchase number 2 Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe. Yes, my obsession with bits and pieces of dead saints continues. I definitely think that my project for the fall must be getting my faux relic collection together so Magda can talk about saints all day.
I also bought the official guide to the Met, so that I can plan my next visit.
After a quick visit to the loo, it was back to the car. Where I was happy to find that I hadn’t finished my iced tea from breakfast. I knew I was dehydrated by this point, we hadn’t drunk nearly enough during the day. We made our way out of the city and back onto the highway. Somewhere in Connecticut we stopped at a Longhorn steak house for dinner. I feel weird not getting red meat in a steakhouse, but I’d been eating burgers all week and the parmesan chicken called out to me. I also had asparagus and Holly let me share her mushrooms. Omm nom nom. Happy belly. =)
I had a lot of fun geeking out over history and art with Holly and Frank. It was a good day for identifying art. I don’t know why I’m always so pleased with myself when I recognize art and artists. It’s not like I didn’t grow up in a house full of art and art books, and haven’t spent the past couple of years poring over artwork looking for costume details. But for some reason, I still don’t think of myself as having much of an art education (probably because I never took Art History in college).
I’ve been enjoying Frank’s photo posts for a while now. He’s always snapping pictures, and had the camera out frequently during the day. Frank photo-documented the trip down in this post.
The plan was to leave at 6:00, so we’d get into the city before traffic got too heavy. I was, not unexpected, a few minutes late getting on the road. And then the Garmin took me past the turn-off for their house, so I had to make a couple of U turns (they live off one of those roads with Jersey barriers down the middle of the road). I ended up arriving around 6:15, to be met in the parking lot. I grabbed my stuff, hopped in their car, and we were on to road, stopping briefly at a rest area McDonald’s for breakfast. The drive was probably 3 hours or so, but it passed quickly, chatting with Holly (Frank is much more the strong silent type. Although he contributed the occasional story, like the fact that CAD has spell check because when he asked, as part of a focus group “if you could add one feature, what would it be?” he quickly responded “spell check” and all the other people in the focus group said, “Yeah! Spell check!”)
We drove in along the Hudson, past the Cloisters. When we crossed Broadway, Frank pointed out the street signs. We crossed Central park, and I recognized the Guggenheim when we drove past it. It was still early, before 10:00, and I was surprised at the lack of traffic on the streets. (You know, my only experience with New York City is what I’ve seen on TV and movies.)
We parked in the parking garage at the Met. Which wasn’t open quite yet. There was a long line out the front door, waiting to get in when they opened. Luckily, we went in through the basement door, where the line was only one or two people long. Since we were planning on coming back, we bought our tickets to the MET to save time when we returned, then walked upstairs, to exit out the front door. There was a beautiful, 1.5 times size life Greek statue right when we came up the stairs. I was admiring the fact that he was intact, with all his bits and pieces (nose, fingers, penis). And then we walked through a large gallery of greco-roman nudes, where every single statue had been castrated, probably by someone who sought to save the innocent from the horror of looking at nekkid manly bits in a museum. It makes me sad when censorship leads to destroying art. =(
We walked out the front door, down the stairs, and Frank hailed us a cab. Having only ridden in a cab a handful of times in my entire life, I have zero taxi hailing skills. I wasn’t surprised to see a credit card swiper in the back seat, but I was surprised to find a TV screen in front of me. Really? Is there anywhere in the world that doesn’t force television on us these days? *growls*
Our cabbie didn’t know where the Morgan Library was, so Frank pulled out the iPad and gave him the closest cross street. Whatever road we were driving down (Park Avenue?) had several large metal sculptures of roses, with scattered pink petals all down the patch of grass down the center of the road. We drove through a building (The Hemsley Building, made me think of Leona….) and finally pulled up in front of a church a block away from The Morgan. There wasn’t much of a line, so we quickly bought our tickets, and then wandered into the big glassed center courtyard. Unlike the Met, there weren’t any large signs to guide us to the exhibit we were there to see. There were a few glass cases with reliquaries in the courtyard, Frank and I snapped a few photos before we were told to stop. *sad face*.
With no idea which direction to head, we took the elevator to the second floor, only to be confronted with a sign stating “This gallery closed to install /next exhibit/” So we rode back down again, and headed towards another door, which turned out to be an exit, not the way to a gallery. Finally we tried a door that actually led somewhere, the Library part of the Morgan Library. First we walked around Mr. Morgan’s Study, where I spotted a pair or paintings of Martin Luthor and his wife Katharina von Bora in the book vault (no really, it’s a bank vault for his most valuable books!). I was playing “Who’s the saint?” trying to identify the woman with the arrow in this painting (turns out it was Saint Barbara) when Holly mentioned that there was a guide to the room. I went over and picked one up (sadly, you had to leave it behind when you left) and walked around reading the descriptions of each piece of art.
There were a couple of beautiful paintings by Hans Memling in the library. We saw a couple other pieces of his at the Met, so he’s sort of my “new artist” of the day. He’s not someone who had been on my artistic radar before now.
There was beautiful stained glass in the windows, half hidden behind heavy velvet curtains, which sadly weren't even mentioned in the guide to the room. One window mentioned Love (Amor) and Truth (Veritas), which made me think of that line in Moulin Rouge about “truth and beauty.” The other window had an interesting image of a cripple who had both a peg leg and a crutch. Then Holly pointed me towards a couple of painted plates from right around our period. (It was really sweet how Holly and Frank kept pointing out stuff from the Guild’s period all day. I really appreciated that!)
The next room, the rotunda, had an amazing painted ceiling. The whole thing was painted in that faux renaissance style that was so popular at the turn of the 20th century. But since I know my historical costuming, it was a bit confusing to see everything from Roman to high medieval to renaissance all smashed together on one ceiling. And they’d really slathered on the gold paint accents, it was practically 3-D in places.
The next room, the Librarian’s office, was one of those two story libraries that I think are so cool, with a balcony around the upper story of the room. The lower walls were filled with very early cylinder seals (Babylonian, Abyssinian, etc.) on one side of the room, and gothic jewelry (from the original Goths) on the other. One of the last things I looked at before I left the room was a gold and jeweled book cover where the description mentioned that the cover included the symbols of the Four Evangelists (man, lion, ox, and eagle). I realized yet again just how much I have to learn in order to be able to think like and properly reenact a devout renaissance Catholic. Almost immediately upon entering Mr. Morgan’s Library I spotted two illuminated manuscripts on display that gave me two of the symbols, but I had to look up the others when I got home. The Library included another impressive display of ceiling art. *sighs* I really love impressive libraries, with two stories of old books, enormous fireplaces, beautiful carpets….
After we left that little wing of the building, we found the exhibit we were actually looking for. The first thing you noticed when you walked in the room were four mannequins dressed in reproduction costumes. And they were just disappointing. All four of them just looked wrong somehow. The fabrics weren’t quite right, the cut wasn’t quite right. I’m almost positive that there wasn’t enough fabric in the Houppeland. Heck, there didn’t even seem like there was enough fabric in the men’s cotte! Nothing draped the way it’s supposed to. And both pairs of men’s hosen had lacing up the back of the ankles. (I didn’t think to check to see if they were properly cut on the bias or not.) There just wasn’t any grace to them. And the images they’re based off of are all graceful.
The replicas were from the Netherlands (borrowed from a Dutch museum?) and I couldn’t help but wonder why on earth they went overseas, when they could have found better garments much closer. laracorsets lives in New Jersey, and the gown she made for Stephen is just so much more beautiful than any of the reproductions they had on display. And the cotehardies chargirlgenius has made for her husband look way better than the one they had on display. (On the way home I think I figured out part of the problem. The reproductions had never been worn so they looked like costumes instead of clothing.)
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the exhibit. The first thing I noticed was the weird spellings (cote hardy instead of cotehardie). Many of the illuminations were tiny, and because the stands they were displayed on were rather tall, sometimes I couldn’t see them very well. If they’d lowered everything by a foot, I would have been able to lean over them and inspect them, instead of often standing on my toes trying to catch a glimpse. And the descriptions were odd too, and not just the spelling. Each piece has an attempt at a clever headline, then a description of the fashions in the image. But I didn’t feel like they were telling me anything I couldn’t see for myself. Yes, the sleeves are tight. Yep, the hemline has raised a bit. OK, so he’s got a wasp waist and padded chest. By the time I was halfway around the room I’d decided that the author was probably a book curator and not a fashion curator, because I didn’t feel like I was learning a whole lot from reading the placards. I did have a short conversation with one of the other patrons who praised the online exhibit, so if you haven’t been, you’ll probably get more out of the virtual exhibit than the actual exhibit. Unless you really want to see pages from Gaston Phoebus’s Hunt Book (which was the highlight for me). In fact, I pretty much skimmed past the last 1/3 of the room.
Holly and I had lost Frank by this time, so we headed upstairs, only to find that (ha ha!) nothing to see here, closed to set up next exhibit. We headed back downstairs, where we found Frank again, and headed to the Gift Shop. Where I really waffled over buying the exhibit catalog. It was $90, and while I thought maybe I would get more out of the book than the exhibit? But that’s a lot of money, and it’s a period I don’t really “do.” I oogled a couple of expensive Taschen books (they’re a German publisher known for their beautifully illustrated books) but I ended up leaving the gift shop with a single postcard. Frank, on the other hand, left with a shopping bag full of books.
We walked a couple of blocks while we discussed what we wanted to do for lunch (it was almost noon). We ended up eating in a Greek deli called Burger Heaven. Why do I think they were Greek? Because you could get Tzatziki sauce or feta with just about everything.
After lunch we caught another cab back to the Met. The trip back was a little bit longer, as one of the streets was blocked off (for some sort of parade?) and we had to detour around it. By this point in the day, traffic was pretty congested, and I was impressed with our driver’s ability to dart in and out between the cars. And once we escaped the congestion, his ability to time it so that as we approached every light it turned green. Go New York cabbie!
When we got back to the Met, security hassled Frank for his iPad. Apparently computers are not allowed in the museum (I wonder why not?). But we got back inside, and after he dropped the books in the car, we headed off to the Arms and Armor section to look at sharp pointy things. *glee* It was hard to go zipping by so many interesting medieval bits (Reliquaries! Furniture! Combs!) but we had a destination to get to.
We wandered some half-lit rooms full of shields and helmets (including one shaped like a chicken!) and swords. I continued with my streak of accurately dating armor based on clothing and shoe shapes (I was right on the nose with this one, because it is shaped just like Gustav’s sleeves!). I was taking pictures of powder horns (made from antler) when Holly dragged me down to check out the purdy purdy decorative swords. They had sparkly gemstones and gold and etchings and Wedgewood blue decorations. Soooooo pretty!
Out in the well lit courtyard there was a troop of four mounted knights on well armored horses, surrounded by cases of pole arms and suits of armor. I inspected helmets, checked out breastplates, oogled saddles and horse armor, and photographed pole arms. My favorite piece was probably this suit belonging to Charles V’s brother, later Emperor Ferdinand I, both because of the ridiculous codpiece, and the etching of the Virgin Mary on the breastplate. And the Guild really needs to bling up our pikes and halberds. I’m just going to have to buy up a bunch of upholstery fringe and spend a weekend making our polearms look spiffy.
After a quick peek at the Japanese armor, we headed back towards the medieval galleries, where I indulged my fascination with reliquaries. I snapped a ton of photos of gold caskets and folding triptychs. There was this great piece, the Shrine of The Virgin, where Mary opens up to display a fully grown Jesus inside her. They had one of Mary Magdalene’s teeth inside a crystal reliquary. (I wonder if she had hundreds of teeth? The same way that John the Baptist had at least four heads?) And I hadn’t realized that the double headed eagle was a state symbol for the Byzantine Empire (wonder if that’s how it got adopted for the Holy Roman Empire?).
After wandering about half of the medieval section, we took a break to check out the art of the Americas. There is a huge sunny sculpture garden under a big glass roof. Inside the door is a fabulous Tiffany stained glass window that is just jaw dropping gorgeous. The courtyard is filled with white marble statues, bronzes, and other sculptures, mostly nudes, but a few wearing classical draperies. Upstairs, around the mezzanine, were American glassware, silver, and pottery.
Once we’d soaked up enough sunlight and American art we dove back into the gloom that was the dimly lit medieval section. This time we wandered the grand sculpture gallery. Most of it was religious, so I was playing “Who’s the Saint?” again. There’s Jerome with his lion, there’s Catherine with her wheel, wonder who that one is? Actually Who’s the Saint probably started up again with the wall of stained glass with a selection of Saints that I’d never heard of before (which is probably why I didn’t realize their names were written on their halos until after I’d read the placard and stared at them again for a little while). Saint Aleidis (who is apparently so obscure that she doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry) and Saint Roch (?) and someone else whose name I can’t read in my photos. I’m rather chuffed with myself for recognizing the origin of one of the little wooden statues. It was of Mary Magdalene, and she was wearing a headdress that made me think of Anne of Cleves. Now that I’m home I’ve had a chance to look her up. The placard said she was from Kalkar and it turns out Kalkar is a town in Kleves. Go me!
We took another detour out of the middle ages, through a gallery with two portraits I know I’ve seen before (possibly on lamodeillustree? Yep, here's one - http://lamodeillustree.livejournal.com/220412.html) into another sculpture courtyard. Again, there was plenty of sunlight streaming in from the skylights and big windows on one end of the gallery. (OMG, I could totally fall in love (lust?) with some of the male nudes. Nice buns on that one!!!!)
We decided to try to find the Alexander McQueen exhibit (who is probably most famous for dressing Lady Gaga several times before his untimely suicide in 2010). We asked at the info desk, but when we found out way upstairs, the line to get into the gallery was staggeringly long. Well, New York is a city full of fashionistas after all. We decided that we’d rather look at more art than wait in line to look at weird clothes, and headed off into the European Painting galleries.
I only recognized one or two artists or paintings in the first couple of rooms. But then we found some El Grecos, and I spotted a self-portrait of Rembrandt. And there were more paintings that I recognized, or liked, or was interested in staring at for a bit to look at costume details or other little fiddly bits. And then suddenly, from across the room, I spotted two Holbeins! I was sure of it. I zipped through the doorway and checked the placards. Yep, Holbeins! (or at least “from the workshop of…”) Then I turned around and spotted the Dürer. And then turned all the way around and there he was… Cranach’s Saint Moritz! I admit it, I squeed. Not only is he the Guild’s patron saint, but of all the images that I’ve been able to find of him so far, that’s my favorite. And I got to see him in person. *glee* Definitely my favorite room in the entire museum!
The next couple of rooms were also right up my alley, medieval portraits, both religious and secular. There was Breughel’s the Harvesters, and a couple more Hans Memling portraits. There was what seemed like an entire room full of nothing but images of the Annunciation. (Ah ha Holly! The Web site clears up the mystery of what the keys symbolize. “The two keys-"clés unis"-in the stained-glass window and on the carpet identify the patron as a member of the Burgundian Clugny family.”)
And finally, after passing through yet more galleries of portraits, we were back at the grand staircase. We headed downstairs and in the Museum Store. Oooooh! Remind me that when I win the lottery, I’m buying all my jewelry at the Met gift shop. Such lovely things. I looked in vain for some religious iconography to add to Magda’s tent. They had a small resin statue of the Madonna and child, but I didn’t love it and it was a bit pricy. And they didn’t have any reliquaries. I know, too obscure. I’m probably the only person crazy enough to want to take one home with them.
All day Holly and Frank had been wonderful about pointing me towards things that might interest me. But the best time was in the bookstore. I’d just started browsing one side of the bargain book table when Holly handed me a book titled The World of the Saints. Now, I’ve been looking for a book of saints for about a year now. Preferably one that focuses on medieval saints (and not anyone who has been canonized in the past 400 years), that might include some of the medieval saints that appear in artwork, but may have been de-canonized when the Catholic church tidied up the feast calendar (they decided that a lot of medieval saints might not have actually existed, and they were stricken from the list). This book not only has all that, it’s organized as an illustrated feast calendar, and has a symbol glossary in the back! *glee* While I was flipping through the slightly damaged copy, she found one that was still in the plastic wrap. Really, I’m just so thrilled with this book. And bonus! It was marked down from $60 to $20. *HappyDance*
Then Holly led me to book purchase number 2 Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe. Yes, my obsession with bits and pieces of dead saints continues. I definitely think that my project for the fall must be getting my faux relic collection together so Magda can talk about saints all day.
I also bought the official guide to the Met, so that I can plan my next visit.
After a quick visit to the loo, it was back to the car. Where I was happy to find that I hadn’t finished my iced tea from breakfast. I knew I was dehydrated by this point, we hadn’t drunk nearly enough during the day. We made our way out of the city and back onto the highway. Somewhere in Connecticut we stopped at a Longhorn steak house for dinner. I feel weird not getting red meat in a steakhouse, but I’d been eating burgers all week and the parmesan chicken called out to me. I also had asparagus and Holly let me share her mushrooms. Omm nom nom. Happy belly. =)
I had a lot of fun geeking out over history and art with Holly and Frank. It was a good day for identifying art. I don’t know why I’m always so pleased with myself when I recognize art and artists. It’s not like I didn’t grow up in a house full of art and art books, and haven’t spent the past couple of years poring over artwork looking for costume details. But for some reason, I still don’t think of myself as having much of an art education (probably because I never took Art History in college).
I’ve been enjoying Frank’s photo posts for a while now. He’s always snapping pictures, and had the camera out frequently during the day. Frank photo-documented the trip down in this post.