365 Days at the Met

 April 21, 2025 Gallery 635 catapults me back into the 15th century and even earlier. It's another example of the unintelligible system for numbering galleries that the Met has adopted. But one could also say that my insistence on visiting galleries in numerical order is equally crazy. (I think that's the first time I've acknowledged this possibility!)  The gallery contains many small painted panels depicting religious scenes, along with small painted crosses and a remarkable small bronze plaque showing the entombment of Christ that was meant to be held in the hands. (That supremely ugly head of John the Baptist on a platter that I wrote about on Day 231 has found its way here as well.) "Oh, a gallery of objects for private devotion" is my immediate reaction, and I wonder if I would have had the same response when I began this project. I think not, and I realize how much I've learned. The works come from Italy, Burgundy, and the Low Countries, and many are by ...

 April 19, 2025 The paintings in Gallery 634 again present an array of genres - history painting, a scene from the Trojan War, numerous portraits - and I again wonder what organizing theme the curator has come up with. The title of the introductory wall sign: "Revolution." More correctly, if slightly more long-windedly, it might be "The French Revolution: Antecedents and Aftermath." Here is where Houdon's bust of Diderot, considered on Day 187, has come to rest, as has the sculptor's bust of Voltaire; I suppose one might see these writers' intellectual curiosity and rationalism as contributing to the spirit of revolution. The gallery also holds Bouilly's painting of the crowd assembled at the Louvre to view David's painting of Napoleon crowning Josephine, the subject of Day 233's entry,  so the subjects depicted extend beyond the Revolution itself.   (I do wonder why the museum has so many galleries of 18th century French paintings. Some are ...

 April 14, 2025 Gallery 633 displays portraits made of prominent political leaders and other French notables between about 1750 and 1830.  This is where David's portrait of Antoine Lavoisier and Mme. Lavoisier discussed ion Day 233 now hangs; I'm glad I discovered this early, because otherwise I would have written about this painting a second time; it's definitely my favorite work in the gallery. The introductory wall sign notes the turbulent political conditions under which political figures lived. The gallery contains two portraits of Talleyrand. I confess that I know little about him, but I read that he served successively under Louis XVI, the Revolutionary government, Napoleon, and the restored kingdom of Philippe - and I'm impressed by his evident political acumen and ability to make himself  invaluable to so many different heads of state. The same introductory sign emphasizes that France's wealth before the Revolution derived largely from its colonial territor...

 April 4, 2025 Gallery 632 is, on first glance, another odd assemblage of 18th century French paintings of various genres: history paintings, paintings with religious subjects (including one entitled "The Triumph of Mordecai [sic]," which makes me question whether the story of Esther was well known, and if so why), still lifes, animal pictures, and portraits. What theme could possibly unify this gallery, I wondered? But actually, the introductory placard succeeds in doing this and proved interesting and instructive. Headlined "Hierarchy, Gender, and the French Academy," it noted that while painters of historical and religious scenes still ranked highest in the judgment of the Academie,  consumer tastes were shifting to portraits, scenes of daily life, still lifes, and paintings of animals. Women painters were largely relegated to these "lesser" genres, and until the fall of the French monarchy, only four women were allowed into the Academie at any one time...

  March 31, 2025 I think it must be quite hard to write the introductory signage for these 18th century French galleries, which contain lots of portraits, some paintings on set themes (a woman reads a love letter, e.g.), some outdoor scenes, and so on. The curator(s) seems to have taken the approach of describing culture in general and its relationship to art in particular.  Gallery 631's sign bears the headline "Urban Luxuries," noting that arts patrons were leaving the royal court at Versailles for well-appointed Parisian townhouses. Presumably the two portraits that are the subjects of today's entry graced these residences. I selected Jean Honore' Fragonard's portrait of Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson, an aristocratic salon hostess, with her dog because I find it utterly charming.  In the painting (which measures, I would guess, 38 inches high and 32 inches wide), Mme. and the little dog she holds are basically shown is profile from below the waist up, but...

March 24, 2025 Gallery 630 contains a number of 18th century paintings of people, sometimes individuals, sometimes in groups.  The introductory signage notes that around 1650, scenes from everyday life became popular subjects for painters, in part because the Reformation  decreased the demand for religious images. Also, I would assume that the rise of a wealthy mercantile class brought a new group of art consumers who wanted to see their own lives better reflected in artists' works. Some of the works have moralizing overtones, and some are sexually frank. One shows a procuress introducing a young woman to a gentleman sitting at his breakfast table. I see that Met caption-writers have now adopted the term "sex worker" to describe women who, in the past, would have been labeled "prostitutes." I'm intrigued to see two detailed copper engraving plates used to make William Hogarth's prints; it's unfortunate that while small reproductions of the prints are...