The Met's Very Cool Medieval Art Collection: The Cloisters
Written: Dec 03 '99 (Updated Mar 15 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful grounds and art
Cons: It is a haul to get there from the main Met museum
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| jenniferhile's Full Review: Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The Cloisters: The Metropolitan Museum's offsite collection of Medieval Art
Phone: (212) 923-3700
Hours: Closed Mondays. Tuesday - Sunday 9:30am - 4:45pm
Location: 193rd St. at Fort Washington Avenue in Fort Tyron Park
Web Site: www.metmuseum.org/htmlfile/gallery/cloister/cloister.html (its web page is a link from the larger Metropolitan Museum web site)
Price:
$10 recommended for adults
$5 recommended for students and senior citizens
*A ticket bought at The Cloisters works at the main Metropolitan Museum on the same day, and vice versa, since The Met runs The Cloisters.
The Cloisters is a beautiful, medieval monastery that sits, improbably, on the northern shore of Manhattan, New York. It was originally built in the Pyrenees Mountains in Europe, then was shipped to America stone by stone and rebuilt by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. at the turn of the century. He later turned it over to New York's Metropolitan Museum and it now houses their medieval collection.
One of the most stunning aspects of the Cloisters is the grounds. It is situated on the banks of the Hudson River, surrounded by a sprawling landscape of trees, herbal gardens, and giant lawns that beg giant picnics. As you wander through, it is hard to believe you are in one of the busiest urban areas in the world. I visited the Cloisters in mid-November when all the leaves where dripping in reds, oranges, and golds, a final burst of color before they acquiesce to winter.
Rockefeller found much of the Cloister's collection by rummaging around Europe, picking up things that the locals did not want. Much of what he found had been lost or partially destroyed during the French Revolution. By the late 1800s when Rockefeller was collecting, the pieces were in various states of disrepair; forgotten relics that no one particularly wanted. The Europeans were quite happy to sell it and get whatever they could for it. (Now the Europeans won't let anything out.) There is a haunting statue of a monk, for instance, that was found turned over in a river, being used as a bridge. Another art piece was being used as a stand for a cash register in a local convenience store.
The most acclaimed pieces in the museum are probably the Unicorn tapestries, and rightfully so. It took one day to sew one square inch on these giant wall-size tapestries, the embroidery is so rich in color and so densely woven. They are extravagant masterpieces. There are 4 tapestries; one in particularly bad shape, which they think was used as a cover for potatoes after the French Revolution. The dress of the people and all of the plants and trees are exact depictions, giving an evocative sense of what life was like at that time in that area. No one is sure of the original owners of the tapestries, except that they must have been very wealthy, and perhaps the tapestries were a wedding gift since the initials A and E are woven together in swirling script on each one.
The series of tapestries tell the tale of a hunt for a unicorn, which medieval Europeans believed were real animals. Scandinavians used to bring down Narwhal tusks and pass them off at exorbitant prices as unicorn horns - which were believed to possess great healing powers. (The Cloisters has a narwhal tusk exhibited with the tapestries for you to check out.) The unicorn was also a symbol of love, which is why it would have been an appropriate wedding gift, since the hunt for the unicorn could be seen as a hunt for love. There is also a theory that, perhaps, it is an allegory of Christ. The unicorn, representing divine love, is finally found after great searching, and then is brutally killed. A ring of branches, like a crown of thorns, can be seen on the unicorn's horn in the last scene, when the hunters present the dead animal to noblemen. The entire series of tapestries is a haunting, absorbing, and beautiful.
The Cloisters also has paintings, sculptures, alter pieces, woodwork, beautiful stained glass windows, and illuminated hand-painted manuscripts. Check their web site for their calendar on lectures and live musical performances. It would be an enchanting place to hear period music.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jenniferhile
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Member: Jennifer Hile
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 11 members
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