365 Days at the Met

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...

 March 20, 2025 Gallery 629 is home to a rather odd melange of early 18th century French paintings whose subjects include entertainers, military encampments, still lifes, and imagined scenes illustrating LaFontaine fables.  Truth to tell, I don't much care for most of these paintings, many of which feel more like sketches than finished works .The gallery  also contains musical instruments from the period - mostly stringed instruments, but also, an oboe and a beautifully curved hunting horn, as well as a hurdy-gurdy, which I've never seen before. The placement of these instruments here is apt, since musicians figure in a number of the paintings, and since a glass door leads from this room into the musical instrument galleries.  One work that captures my attention is Jean Simeon Chardin's "Soap Bubbles," completed around 1733-1734.  In this rather small square painting, which measures about 32" by 32", a young man leans over the edge of a table blowing a s...

March 3, March 10, 2025 As I walked into gallery 628, I instantly knew that it’s devoted to English painters of the 1700s.  (More accurately, it's home to works of painters who worked mostly in England, since the gallery contains works by Copley and John Trumbull.)  Is it that I’ve seen some of the images before? John Hoppner’s portrait of a famous boxer of the period, fists raised in an en garde position, looks very familiar. Is it the abundance of red coats worn by the men in the portraits? Is it the pouffy powdered wigs of the women? Or is it something about the gray skies and hazy treatment of the landscapes (perfect for a damp, misty climate!), or the use of dogs and horses as accessories for men of genteel birth? It seems to me, too, that there's also a stylistic element involved: many of the pictures display loose brushwork  (The introductory placard talks about Britain’s role in the global economy and the establishment of the Royal Academy, so maybe I’m on the wro...

  February 27, 2025 As I scanned the roomful of portraits and paintings of classical and religious subjects in Gallery 627, along with the two large Panini works that were the subject of Day 239, I wondered what in the world the unifying theme of the gallery could be. The introductory sign is entitled "The Grand Tour" and notes the importance of a trip to Italy in the education and formation of the young gentleman.  The Panini paintings certainly exemplify that theme. But really, a better title would be "Artists Who Moved to and Died in Rome (or in Naples)." With the exception of Angelica Kauffmann and Anton Raphael Mengs (whose portrait, discussed on Day 238, has been moved here), most of these artists , who include Francesco Trevisani, Pierre Hubert Subleyras,  and the two painters whose works are the subject of today's entry, were unknown to me. I'm struck by Pierre Jacque Volaire's rather small (perhaps 48 inches across and 28 inches high) 1776 oil  ...

 February 24, 2025 I'd passed through Gallery 626 a number of times, noting that it contains works of art from the Spanish colonies in the Americas but not really looking at any of these works.  Today's visit to the gallery turned out to be a pleasant surprise: Many of the works, which deal with religious subjects and are largely by unidentified painters, were unexpectedly charming.  They have a distinctive, naive quality and characteristics that we associate with self-taught artists: simplified forms, flat lighting, a lack of single-point perspective "Our Lady of Valvanera," painted around 1770-1780 by an unknown artist in Cuzco, is a case in point. The very large canvas, which measures perhaps 10 feet long and 7 feet high and, unusually, is unframed, depicts the discovery of an image of the Virgin and Child within the hollow of a tree by Nuno Ortiz, a thief turned hermit.  The Virgin wears a dress whose elaborate embroidery is indicated with gold paint; both the ho...

  February 21, 2025 The wall sign that introduces Gallery 625 bears the title “Power and Portraiture in Spain,” but it might  equally well be called “Velasquez and Portraiture.” Velasquez painted four or five (one attribution is questionable) of the ten portraits hung in this room. Two others are by Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, Velasquez’ son-in-law and assistant, who imitated his father-in-law in his methods,  and two are by Murillo, who, the signage says, was also influenced by Velasquez The final portrait, by Sebastiano del Piombo, is supposedly of Columbus (but its date, after Columbus’ death, suggests that del Piombo may have painted Columbus’ son instead). This work looks nothing at all like the portraits of the Spanish painters, but it does illustrate the general principle that it was wealthy and important people who had their portraits painted. Painted and repainted, actually, since images were copied for use as diplomatic gifts, to let potential suitors know ...