In keeping with my plan to visit the Metropolitan Museum once a month, I spent an hour at The Cloisters today. This is the uptown branch of the Met that houses a large collection of medieval objects in a building resembling a monastery, and with multiple courtyards and interiors of European abbeys that were transported here and reconstructed. It sits in the midst of a park on highlands overlooking the Hudson River Palisades and northeast Manhattan, and it is the only museum in Manhattan where I can drive up and park at the front door anytime I want. The trip from my home takes about fifteen minutes.
I like to visit museums for short periods, or exhaustion sets in. Since I can go often, I can look at a few things each time and leave the rest for later. Some of favorites that I viewed today:
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- From the parking lot
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- Wooden alterpiece figure: Renaissance style – note the shaved forehead and hairstyle
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- Gold and silver – wildmen hold up the one on the left
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- Wildman shouldering the burden
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- Wildman – a symbol of virility?
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- Wonderful Spanish plates
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- Robert Campin, Merode Alterpiece – the picture as window is the central conceit of western painting from the late middle ages to the late 19th century.
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- A bishop seeks guideance from above.
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- You are there!
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- The 3-D effect of the dark blue and black stained glass is wonderful.
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- Poor light to protect the manuscript of the Apocalypse – note the grotesque in the lower right
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- Entombment, Florentine, similar to Lorenzo Monaco, a favorite of mine.
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- Back of a mirror or casket cover showing the attack on Love’s castle, a popular theme of the day. The defenders dump barrels of roses on the besiegers.
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- Remarkable ivory carving of a hunt. Note the dying deer on the right, attacked by man and dogs.
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- Thank heavens the Italians gave us forks!
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- Reliquary for a saint’s arm bone – Lichanos?
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- One of many cloisters at The Cloisters
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- Idealized Christian knight on a tomb
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- Gothic naturalism – a donor stands by the door of the church he built
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- Strange, abstract figures in a church apse
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- More fun with monsters devouring sinners
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- Romanesque floral ornament on a capital
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- Sinners in hell
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- Lively ornament; the damned in hell.
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- An acanthus capital – not what you think of as medieval!
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- The Hudson, the Palisades, and the George Washington Bridge to NJ
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- A remarkable torso of Christ, unusually naturalistic.
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- View to surrounding upper Manhattan
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- Old and new – what’s with that license plate? Death Trap!!
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- Inspiration for Kubrick’s finale to 2001?
with multiple courtyards and interiors of European abbeys that were transported here and reconstructed
Literally? You mean, original pieces transported and rebuilt?
I wonder if that Ferrari is your car. Possibly not. The Italian forchetta I couldn’t download.
I have saved almost all pics in one folder, ‘Lichanos’, subfolder of ‘Immagini di blogger’.
Yes, transported here in crates and reassembled piece by piece! Those Rockefellers had a lot of money! And some of the properties were in a rather poor state of repair – I guess the national governments were happy to get the cash. It was The Depression!
Nope, the car ain’t mine.
I have other posts with museum pics, too, you know.
I know.
BTW, you chauvinistic Italian, you, it’s a Porsche!
I have inserted your saint’s arm bone picture into my new posting, with proper attribution of course. If you mind I’ll put another picture instead. Ciao
Benigne. Pax vobiscum.
BTW, you chauvinistic Italian, you, it’s a Porsche!
Ooops! It’s just the color red’s fault!