Part of my 2021 resolution is to write about a museum every month. This idea originated last May, after I learnt about the International Museum Day. I don’t have any art background whatsoever, so most of the stories/contents are based-off my memories from the museum tours.
January — Legion of Honor
February — San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Due to the amount of content, I’ve decided to split the Met into 2 stories. This is the first story.
Content
- Overview — museum history, general information
- Collections —special decorated rooms
Overview
The Met is definitely my favorite museum of US, even though I’ve only visited its main site on the Fifth Ave. For this story, I’ll only focus on the Met Fifth Ave. location.
History
The Met was incorporated in 1870, in the Dodworth Building, as a “‘national institution and gallery of art’ to bring art and art education to the American people.” The Met moved to its current Central Park location on the Fifth Ave. in 1880. The original building was a red-bricked Ruskinian Gothic structure, and was scorned by the public. Around the turn of the century, the building expanded with a Neoclassical style, that we are familiar with today, over the original. You may still find pieces of evidences to the old building throughout the museum, with a well-preserved facade in the Robert Lehman Wing.
The Met Cloisters opened in 1938 in Fort Tryon Park. Since this branch is devoted to medieval art and architecture, the site is a castle with elements from different medieval cloisters. As part of the Met 360˚ Project, you can virtually admire the Met Cloisters architecture here.
The Met Breuer opened in 2016, occupied a former Whitney Museum of American Art building, is dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Unfortunately, this location is permanently closed in 2020. As part of the Met 360˚ Project, you can virtually tour the building here.
General Info
Admission is “pay-what-you-wish” for Tri-state students and New York State residents, and $25 for general adult admission. An annual membership starts from $110, where $68 is tax-deductible, and you can bring a guest per visit. For BoA card holders, admissions used to be free, pre-COVID, for every first full weekend of each month.
The Met Fifth Ave. is massive and maze-like. Though I’ve visited this site numerous times, I still have trouble navigate around this museum. Upon entering the main entrance, you’ll arrive at the Great Hall, where admission, coat check, the Information Desk, and the Met Store are located. You can virtually view the Great Hall as of the Met 360˚ Project here.
To your left is the Greek and Roman Art hall; to your right is the Egyptian Art gallery. Up front is a grand staircase, known as the Great Hall Steps, which leads to the second floor of European Paintings. Underneath the staircase is a “hidden” gallery of Byzantine Egypt, while behind the staircase is the Medieval Art.
You can have a detailed look at its floor plan here.
Collections
Based on the map above, the Met Fifth Ave. can be roughly categorized into the following collections:
- Arms and Armor, virtual tour
- Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
- American Wing
- Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Asian Art
- Costume
- Drawings and Prints
- Egyptian Art
- European Paintings
- European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- Greek and Roman Art
- Islamic Art
- Medieval Art
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Musical Instruments
- Photographs
Among these collections, there are many notable rooms with special decorations. List below are rooms that are memorable to me.
The Temple of Dendur
One of the temples saved via UNESCO’s Save the Monuments of Nubia campaign. To recognize US’ contribution, Egypt gifted the Temple of Dendur to US, under 2 conditions:
- preserve the original orientation (facing east)
- available to visitors 24/7
The Temple of Dendur was eventually awarded by President Johnson to the Met. In order to make this temple available to visitors 24/7, the Met installed a huge French Window on the north wall, enabling visitors to look at the temple after hours.
Since this temple originally stood above the Nile River, the Met recreated the scene with granite — there are even crocodile sculptures alongside the river! On certain Friday & Saturday evening, there are light projections onto the temple, restoring the original color (yes, Egyptians colored their buildings!).
The temple was one of many initiated by Augustus to honor Egyptian deities. Its interior is extremely small, as ordinary people were not allowed access. Lots background information are displayed along the south wall, as well as extensive audio available in the audio guide, online, or a virtual 360˚ tour.
Tomb of Perneb
A tomb of a high official, from an ancient cemetery Saqqara. This above structure is for relatives & priests to pray, while the actual burial is underground (and off-limit). There are amazing wall painting decorations & hieroglyphs inside the tomb, depicting Perneb’s afterlife.
This tomb, predates the pyramid, is known as a Mastaba, which is a rectangular-shaped one-story modern house. When the Met acquired this tomb, it was the only place outside of Egypt to have an architectural tomb.
Assyrian Sculpture Court
A group of archeologists, under the sponsor of the British Empire, went on an adventure to northern Iraq, in search of the lost kingdom — the royal court of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II. Though most of the discovered artifacts are now at the British Museum (I’ll cover in a later story, eventually), the Met nonetheless designated this room to display the bits & pieces of reliefs (from various rooms) it owns. One of the reliefs depicts the king himself.
The archway has 2 magnificent colossal human-headed winged creatures. Both creatures have 5-legs, so when looked from the side, they march forward; while looking from the front, they stand proud & still. However the 2 creatures are not the same: one has a lion body while the other has a bull body, as they were from 2 different gateways.
European Sculpture Court
This glass-covered naturally-lit court was the Met’s original front entrance — the red-bricked-wall was the remains of the original Ruskinian building, where the horse-drawn carriages pull up to back in the days.
With chairs alongside the red-bricked walls and large European marble sculptures chronologically presented from east to west, it is a popular resting place for many nowadays.
Charles Engelhard Court
One of the entrances (and my fav) to the American Wing. With the glass ceiling, small cafe, & scattered sculptures, it feels like a plaza than a museum. All the sculptures displayed in this courtyard are created by American sculptors. A 360˚ Project video tour can be seen here.
My personal favorites are the stained glass arts, created by Louis Comfort Tiffany, alongside the walls of this courtyard. In particular the breathtaking autumn landscape window shown above. The south-side of this courtyard is the entrance to the Laurelton Hall, Tiffany’s estate back in the days. The north-side is the Greek-Revival facade of the Branch Bank, situated in the Wall Street in the 1800s.
A new world emerges upon entering the Branch Bank…
American Wing Period Rooms
A series of American domestic architecture & interior furnishings from 17th — 20th century, depicting the lives of the room owners. I’ll briefly mention 2, for a full detailed list, please check the Met.
The living room of the famous American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the first period room, when entered from the Branch Bank. This Prairie-style lake house served both as a family gathering place & an informal concert hall.
The room followed a concept of “organic architecture”, where everything are interconnected (originally a Minnesota Lake view, now the view of Central Park) & blended-together.
Definitely the most visually striking period room in the American Wing, featuring a sophisticated Anglo-French of the 1800s. I love the wall painting of la Seine, Paris.
Astor Chinese Garden Court
A tranquil Ming-dynasty Suzhou garden. I was told that all the rocks, tiles, stones etc. were imported from China, and constructed strictly following Chinese Feng-Shui. The Met even enclosed a narrow hallway outside of this garden, to plant bamboos as an extension. The garden stones are from Taihu, which is the most well-known stones for Chinese garden decoration. The Met again used glass ceiling to achieve the natural-light effect. Unfortunately, due to the closed environment, the elements of wind & birds are missing.
Palace of Versailles
A painted circular panoramic view of the Palace & Gardens of Versailles, with Louis XVIII on the palace balcony. I discovered this room purely by chance, as I was lost and blindly navigated myself. Then I was struck by how realistic these panoramic paintings are.
As part of the fun, the artist, John Vanderlyn, painted himself in this ambitous project. Unfortunately, he later claimed it as a failure & eventually died in poverty. Years after his death, however, this painting became the principal attraction of the first NYC art museum.