Day 84 - Ming dynasty room


August 31, 2018

I was very tired and after doing an errand on the East Side, considered skipping the museum and taking the bus back home. I'm so glad I didn't! Gallery 218, in back of the Ming scholar's garden, is truly one I have never seen before. Perhaps 50 feet long and 20 feet wide, it is meant to evoke the salon of what I assume was a grand home during the Ming dynasty. As such, it houses several pieces of Ming furniture from the Met's collection, including a long and wide settee, two grand wardrobes, two stools, and several tables. Three large windows frame garden scenes of rough limestone rocks and greenery. On a long table under the central window is a dark blue porcelain vase that holds several flowering stems, artfully arranged. In all, the feeling is one of spareness: There are not many objects, but each is a thing of grace, and its place has been carefully thought out. 

 This is a space created by the museum. of course. But I wonder who would have lived in a place like this, A landowner? A government official? I am sure that it is a far, far remove from the kinds of homes that peasants occupied. But I suppose that throughout history, a beautiful residence has largely been the privilege of the rich.

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