An entire building
Went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art a few days ago. (Umpeenth time.) Perfect museum day, gray, rainy. Spent three hours randomly wandering. The Met is so groaning with art it's hard to fathom. Just when I thought there wasn't a room or nook I hadn't seen, I stumbled into an undiscovered cache.
Yes, Met's a big place. That's not the subject of today's monologue, though.
The subject is the sheer magnitude of what we've made in the brief time we've inhabited this blessed plot.
You don't need me to inform you of the destruction and pain humans have caused. That's The NeverEnding Story.
But so is art.
To spend three hours in the Met, with no agenda, walking aimlessly as you would down the streets of a foreign city, is to drink deep draughts of beauty.
In a great museum can you experience the sheer array of thousands of years of human artistic efforts. Where else can you see Egyptian jewelry from three thousand years ago by an anonymous master...
Necklace of Princess Sithathoryunet, ca. 1880 B.C., Middle Kingdom, Egypt..and a somberly inspiring view of New York buildings seen from a bridge painted by Edward Hopper?
"From Williamsburg Bridge" Edward Hopper 1928 Where else can you see an almost perfectly preserved Etruscan chariot...
Etruscan bronze chariot, 6th century B.C.
...and, a short stroll away, a breathtaking textile by a contemporary Ghanaian master?
Textile by El Anatsui, Ghana, 2006We're at our best in a museum like the Met. Good to be remined we're capable of a best.
Yes, Met's a big place. That's not the subject of today's monologue, though.
The subject is the sheer magnitude of what we've made in the brief time we've inhabited this blessed plot.
You don't need me to inform you of the destruction and pain humans have caused. That's The NeverEnding Story.
But so is art.
To spend three hours in the Met, with no agenda, walking aimlessly as you would down the streets of a foreign city, is to drink deep draughts of beauty.
In a great museum can you experience the sheer array of thousands of years of human artistic efforts. Where else can you see Egyptian jewelry from three thousand years ago by an anonymous master...
Necklace of Princess Sithathoryunet, ca. 1880 B.C., Middle Kingdom, Egypt..and a somberly inspiring view of New York buildings seen from a bridge painted by Edward Hopper?
"From Williamsburg Bridge" Edward Hopper 1928 Where else can you see an almost perfectly preserved Etruscan chariot...
Etruscan bronze chariot, 6th century B.C....and, a short stroll away, a breathtaking textile by a contemporary Ghanaian master?
Textile by El Anatsui, Ghana, 2006We're at our best in a museum like the Met. Good to be remined we're capable of a best.
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Marina
(new)
Mar 05, 2020 12:51PM
Richard, thank you for sharing your wonderful experience of drinking "deep draughts of beauty."
reply
|
flag
