Day 36 – 12/16/16: European Paintings 1250-1800 (part)

Two days later, we started at the Met Breuer, which Bev had not yet seen. I was there before, but since all the exhibits are special, everything was new to me too. We saw a collection of Paul Klee works, and a two-floor exhibit of works by Kerry James Marshall.

After lunch we went back to the Met (or Met Fifth Avenue, as it's formally called) and went through another large block of European paintings. Once again, proceeding by gallery number turned out not to be logical in this case, since the next galleries, numbers 625 to 627, started back with Italian medieval religious paintings, similar to parallel galleries 602 to 606. There were some magnificent pieces here, going all the way back to the year 1300. We then continued through the ten galleries of Dutch and Flemish art, including such well-known masters as Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, and Verneer. Every gallery was filled with treasures.

Anthony van Dyck, Study Head of a Young Woman (1618-20)

Govert Flinck, Bearded Man with a Velvet Hat (1645)

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait (1660)

Day 35 – 12/14/16: European Paintings 1250-1800 (part)

On another four-day trip to New York, we finished the later Italian paintings, which included sweeping landscapes and scenes of ordinary life. We then took an interesting tour of the Islamic galleries.

Merry-making in three countries. France: Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater, The Fair at Bezons (ca. 1730)














Italy: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, A Dance in the Country (ca. 1755)












Holland: Jan Steen, Merry Company on a Terrace (ca. 1670)

Day 34 – 11/28/16: Expanded European Paintings 1250-1800 (start)

The Met's collection of European Paintings up to 1800 is its central collection -- in terms of size and quality -- as well as location, with 45 galleries filling the entire 2d floor of the central (19th Century) buildings. I had seen this back in 2010, but in 2013 the galleries were expanded by one-third. Bev had not been with me the first time, so I resolved to see the expanded collection with her.

After seeing an enjoyable special exhibition, Max Beckmann in New York, we spent the rest of this day in Galleries 600-617, which encompass the major part of the huge Italian collection, plus all of the Spanish and French. Among the highlights were the Italian Baroque gallery, the large Venetian 16th Century gallery pictured above (Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese), Velazquez and El Greco in the Spanish area, and David and many others in the French section. I was captivated by the many styles of evocative portraits (below). The amazing El Geco painting, Vision of Saint John,  which I saw last time at the Met Breuer's Unfinished exhibition, was back in its normal location, giving an entirely different perspective.

Carlo Dolci: Saint Philip Neri (1645-46)

Carlo Francesco Nuvolone: Female Martyr Saint (1650)

El Greco: Portrait of a Man (1590-1600)

Jean Baptiste Greuze: Study Head of a Woman (ca. 1780)

Day 33 – 11/25/16: Medieval (end)

Italian manuscript 1450-1500, which provides
a Christian setting in Latin, I assume, for a
Hebrew text very familiar in our synagogue
"How awesome is this place; this is none other
 than the house of God (beit Elohim)"

In the morning I finished the last two galleries of the Medieval section, seeing an interesting selection of religious sculptures, ivory carvings, and manuscripts.

After meeting Bev's family in Soho, we came back in the evening to see a wonderful special exhibition, Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven.

Day 32 – 7/6/16: Met Breuer; Medieval (part)

  

On March 18, the Met opened its new Met Breuer building, devoted to modern and contemporary art, and, because of extensive traveling, this was the first time I was able to get there. The building was the former home of the Whitney Museum, but the Met barely mentions that fact in its publicity, preferring to highlight the building's architect, Marcel Breuer, and calling the building a masterpiece of Bauhaus architecture. I'm not convinced of that, but it certainly serves the intended purpose.

El Geco's Vision of Saint John (1608-14) appears
"unfinished" according to the caption, but had
enormous impact on 20th Century artists from
Picasso to Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock

Aside from a small installation on the first floor, there are basically three floors of galleries plus a fifth floor with a cafe and bookstore. By the date I arrived, the initial exhibit on floor 2 had closed, and floors 3 and 4 were devoted to a single exhibition entitled, "Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible." Despite the building's focus on modern and contemporary, the first half of the exhibit had works dating back to the Renaissance period, and these led to the more recent works in the second part. The juxtaposition was useful, since it seemed easier to tell whether the older works are finished or not, and if unfinished, whether intentionally or not.

It took just over two hours to see this museum, and fortunately it's just a 15-minute walk (with no additional fee) to see the main museum, now called Met Fifth Avenue to distinguish it. There I continued my tour of the Medieval section with a single gallery. It's the museum's central gallery and one of it's largest, best known for the huge Choir Screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid, but also containing a wealth of religious statues and other impressive items. Nathan then joined me and we saw the special exhibit, "Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs."

 

Day 31 – 2/7/2016: Costume Institute; Byzantine and Medieval (part)

The Costume Institute offers a series of special exhibitions each year on the museum's ground floor. This marked the final museum area of my tour, although there are several areas that I plan to revisit for various reasons. The current exhibition is devoted to Jacqueline de Ribes, who apparently is a countess, a fashion designer and collector, and high society celebrity. Her world seems as distant as Palace of Versailles, or perhaps the Hollywood Red Carpet, but some of the gowns are fun to admire. In addition to the fancy evening gowns, there are even more outlandish Masked Ball costumes and well as some some assemblages of pieces from here and there entitled Flights of Fantasy.

Back in the Byzantine area, I discovered the Egyptian Byzantine Gallery, also known as the Crypt Gallery, which some web sites call a one of the museum's hidden treasures. It is located under the grand staircase and was restored in 2000 to reveal structural arches and underside of the staircase. After finishing the Byzantine section, which focuses on the Mediterranean area, I toured the first large Medieval gallery (304), which focuses on Western Europe. That one hall had a huge variety of mostly religious objects, including statuary, stained glass, and ritual objects.

Ritual objects in gilded copper and enamel, Limoges, France, about 1200

Day 30 – 1/18/2016: Byzantine revisited (part)

The Attarouthi Treasure, Syria, 550-650

I had seen the Medieval areas back in 2005 -- before I started going through all the rooms meticulously -- so I decided it was time to revisit those areas, which includes a Byzantine section and a separate department devoted to Arms and Armor.  The first galleries off the Great Hall is devoted to Byzantine Art, and the first thing one encounters is the impressive golden chalices from the Attarouthi Treasure.

Glass vessels with Jewish and Christian symbols

The prior evening, coincidentally, we had a discussion about whether the main market street of the Old City of Jerusalem had changed over the centuries. It turned out I was right: it had not. I discovered a display (pictured here) suggesting that even in the 6th century, merchants were selling souvenirs to visiting pilgrims. Although hard to decipher now, some of these have Jewish symbols, some Christian, to accommodate all possible buyers (Muslims weren’t around yet). After this one gallery, the rest of the family joined me, and we saw the extensive special exhibit, Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom.