Day 22 - 6/22/14: Chinese Ceramics; Greek and Roman (part)

Great Hall with ceramics around the balcony

I finished the Asian Art wing with a look at the Chinese ceramics displayed in one of the Museum's most prominent spaces: the balcony of the Great Hall and main staircase. Much of the Chinese pottery was made for European export starting in the 18th Century, as Europeans loved and tried to imitate the more advanced Chinese techniques. A great example is teapots, where I was unable to distinguish among the Chinese, Japanese or European examples.

I then went back to the Greek and Roman section, where I had been trying for many visits to get into the last few galleries, which apparently are roped off at the beginning and end of each day. I discovered there was more to see than I realized, since there was an entire Mezzanine that had also been closed previously. This consisted of a huge "study gallery" consisting of 4,000 unmarked pieces that didn't fit into the main galleries on the first floor. While there were some fragments and damaged pieces, many were just as good as the items downstairs. Also on the Mezzanine was an Etruscan gallery, covering an area of central Italy prior to the Roman Empire, with a style somewhat different from Greek or Roman. The most prominent feature was a bronze chariot from the 6th Century BC. I needed to leave for an afternoon theater show and needed to again leave the final Roman galleries for another day.