The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This past weekend, I traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city. On this trip,  I traveled with my family, my parents and my sister accompanied me on this trip. Fortunately for us the day was beautiful. From early morning, I knew that it was going to stay that way for the rest of the day. We left for the train station at 8:00 am and we parked in the stations parking. We took the 8:25am train which put us in NY at about 10:30am.

 

Our arrival in NY was without delay. Luckily my sister knew her way around the subway and we took the subway to 86th street and we walked the three blocks  to the museum. Apparently everyone was in the same frame of mind because it seemed that everyone was out enjoying the day. The museum was full of people.

 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art earliest roots begin in Paris, France to 1866 when a group of Americans created a "national institution and gallery of art" to bring art and education the American people. The lawyer John Jay who was the one the proposed the idea, upon his return to the states began to move the project forward. Under his watchful eye the Union League Club in New York got together civic leaders, businessmen, artists, art collectors and philanthropists and on April 13, 1870, the Museum was incorporated an opened to the public. It was opened in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue. On November of that same year the Museum acquired its first object, a roman sarcophagus.

 

On March 30, 1880 after a brief move to the Douglas Mansion at 128 West 14th Street the museum opened again to the public at its current site on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. The architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould designed the Ruskinian Gothic building, the west facade of which is still visible in the Robert Lehman Wing. The building has since expanded with various additions, built as early as 1888 which now completely surround the original building.  

 

The building was massive and with so many people I couldn't decide what to go see first. We decided to just go down the hall way on the left and we came upon something that has always fascinated me, Greek Mythology and its sculptures.  My mother would tell me the stories about Zeus, Hera and Hercules. I remember that one of my favorite shows to watch when I was younger was Hercules and Xena Warrior Princess. The following pictures are of the pieces that caught my eye walking through the gallery.

  

Marble torso of a cuirassed statue of an emperor
Rome, late Augustan or Julio-Claudian, 1st half of the 1st century A.D
Said to be from the Roman colony of Salona in Dalmatia
(modern Croatia)

This was the first thing that you see when you enter the gallery that houses the Greek sculptures. This is an example of Roman imperial art. The breastplate is decorated in relief on the chest with the Sun God (Sol) emerging from the waters in a frontal quadriga (four-horse chariot) and on the abdomen with two Victories hanging shields on a trophy.

 

Marble column from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis
Greek, Hellenistic, ca. 300 B.C.



This is a section of a fluted Ionic column in the center stood over fifty-eight feet high in its original location at the Temple of Artemis. The delicate foliate carving on the capital is unique among extant capital from the temple.

 

Marble statue of Eirene (the personification of peace)
Roman, Julio-Claudian period, ca. A.D. 14-68
Copy of a Greek bronze statue of 375/375-360/359 B.C.
By Kephisodotos



This a statute of Eirene the daughter of Zeus and Themis. She is one of the three Horai (seasons) maidens associated with fertility of the earth and the nurturing of children. The original statue made of bronze was erected in the Agora (marketplace) of Athens between375/374 and 360/359 B.C. 

 

Marble statue of Hermes
Roman, Imperial period, 1st or 2nd century A.D
Copy of adaptation of a Greek statue of the late 5th or early 4th century B.C. 

Statue of Hermes. Hermes was the God of Greek religion and mythology,  he is the messenger of the gods and the intercessor between mortals and the divine as well as the conductor of souls into the afterlife. He is the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia. He is he second youngest of the Olympian gods.

 

Marble of a statue of a girl
Roman, Imperial period, 1st or 2nd century A.D.
Copy or adaptation of a Greek work of the
3rd or 2nd century B.C. 

Is a a statue of a girl that was restored in the 17th century. The back of the head, neck, plinth with both feet and the drapery adjoining the left foot and the drapery folds along the left side. This statue was done during the Hellenistic period and sculptors during that period liked doing complex renditions with layers of drapery. This sculptor was once a part of the collection formed by the MarcheseVincenzo Giustiniani in Rome. 

 

My trip with my family to the Met was an awesome experience. I truly enjoined my time there and this summer I will definitely return to see the rest of the galleries that I didn't get to see.