365 Days at the Met

April 25, 2019 I feel instantly and unexpectedly happy when I look at the works on view in gallery 400, the first of seven galleries devoted to the art of the ancient Near East. (I guess the Met is sticking with this Eurocentric label, rather than going for the more PC "West Asia.") The museum's holdings in this area are rich, with objects that date from the 8th millennium B.C.E. to the 7th century C.E., just before the Muslim conquest. The pieceshis  in this gallery come from the Assyrian Empire or reflect its influence. At first, I'm not sure what accounts for my pleasure in seeing these works. Probably a considerable factor is that they are so instantly recognizable and familiar. Another reason might be the relatively realistic depiction of the human body,  after all the African sculptures in which the body is represented as an assemblage of abstract forms (cylindrical limbs, ovoid heads,and the like). And part of it is the detail of the carving a...

Although I'll never count these galleries among my favorites, I can certainly understand their appeal, especially since we have all been raised on legends of knights, and their images are so familiar from  movies and TV. (Am I the only person in the U.S. who has never seen "Game of Thrones"?)  The displays are interesting for what they tell about how the technology of combat has changed over time, about the union of technology with artistry,  about art and decoration as a signifier of social class, and--not least!--about male vanity. (I think of that Etruscan cuirass, which almost undoubtedly gave its wearer a better physique than the one with which nature endowed him!)  They also say something about the propensity to see one's role in combat as divinely sanctioned and to invoke God's protection, whatever the faith of the combatant. Two things strike me about my own responses. First, I find myself more interested in swords than in guns. Certainly, the former are...

April 23, 2019 I wasn't looking forward to today's visit, since I knew that Gallery 380 is home to a special exhibition on London arms-making in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and I expected to be bored. (I might note that the gallery also houses  display cases containing Colt and Winchester revolvers that were made in Springfield, MA and New Haven - a reminder that these cities were  once prosperous industrial centers.) In fact, the exhibition turned out to be reasonably interesting from a sociological perspective.  According to the caption, London arms-makers of the period were renowned for their skill at making technologically advanced guns that maximized speed, accuracy, and ease of handling to meet the needs of the sporting gentry.  One small double-barreled pocket pistol on display, for example, could be fired from both barrels by pulling twice in quick succession on the trigger. Many of the guns were quite plain, made of highly po...

April 22, 2019 Gallery 379 houses a collection of Ottoman, Iranian, and Mughal arms and armor mostly dating from 1500 forward. I'm struck by the elaborate and beautiful ornamentation of the sabers,  daggers, and scabbards,  and also of a number of flintlock rifles on display. Several of the Mughal daggers, with their delicate traceries of gold and inlays of emeralds and rubies, are really stunning.  I also note how many of the works make reference to Allah, a reminder of how commonly God, by whatever name, is invoked in times of conflict.  I didn't choose today's object, a helmet from 15th century Moorish Spain, because of its beauty, although it certanly impresses visually. The helmet is made of steel and covered entirely with gold leaf; silver lines its rim. Incised teardrop shapes and circles are inlaid with delicate cloisonne' enamel; adding the tiny drops of red, white, green, and black must have been painstaking (and eyesight-ruining) work. But what re...

April 16, 2019 Gallery 378 contains objects from Japan, China, Tibet, and central Asia that give me unexpected pleasure. I hadn't thought of Tibetans as particularly warlike (what with the Dalai Lama and all).  But there's a  model figure of a mounted Tibetan cavalryman whose upper body is covered with chain mail. There's also a Tibetan  ceremonial saddle - made in 1942! - whose side pieces are made of beautifully modeled gilt copper inlaid with turquoise; I think I recognize deagon motifs among the curlicues of the ornamentation.  There's a 17th-18th century Japanese coat of armor with square and rectangular metal plates fastened onto chain mail that looks so unlike any other armor I've seen that the first thing I think is that the figure looks like it has just stepped out of an alien movie. There's a fabulous lapis lazuli-hilted knife (I surmise that this was ceremonial even before reading the caption, which confirms my su...

April 9, 2019 In gallery 377, I feel as though I've been transported to a different  universe, Japanese armor is so unlike anything I've seen before (except, perhaps,  in Kurosawa movies). The components are different from European armor, with huge neck and shoulder guards and skirts instead of pants. And the construction is also different: Many pieces appear to be made of literally hundreds of narrow strips of leather, lashed together with silk threads sometimes dyed in vivid shades of coral or turquoise.  (But I'm not sure about the construction techniques; this is a place where I miss some explanatory text.) In any case, armor-making must have been an incredibly time-consuming and painstaking effort. I wonder whether Japanese armor was as protective as its European counterparts, and how it compared with the latter in weight. Today's object is not armor but an early- to mid-19th century surcoat made of imported European wool that appears to be felted, along ...

April 8, 2019 Gallery 376 is swords, swords, swords. Or, more precisely, it's about evolution. On display are rapiers (which, I learn, were the chief civilian sidearm of the 16th and 17th centuries, used in cut-and-thrust fencing and distinguished by their sharp, double-edged blades and  elaborate handguards), smallswords (lighter, trimmer swords that predominated in the 18th century), hunting swords, and the occasional dagger.  I learn, too, that b y the end of the 18th century, pistols had replaced swords as the weapons of choice.    Armor evolved as well, and by the end of the 17th century, full coats of armor had largely been replaced by a single plate element, the gorget, which protected the upper chest, along with a leather doublet, which was much lighter than armor but also protective.  Through all this, it's interesting to see these weapons, often highly ornamented in various styles, as status symbols. And I realize, more than ever, tha...

Guns, guns, and more guns (along with some crossbows and a hunting sword that belonged to a Borghese prince) -- Gallery 375 is my least favorite to date. But I have to concede that the items on display are interesting-- guns of different types, from different countries, and with different ornamentation. Some of that ornamentation is highly elaborate, including stocks inlaid with staghorn, silver, mother-of-pearl, and other substances.  One mid-17th century rifle from Silesia shows allegorical figures of the continents: Europe is a queen in a chariot pulled by horses, Africa's chariot is pulled by lions, and Asia's by camels. The placard says that America's chariot is pulled by unicorns, but I don't see this; perhaps it's more clearly visible on the gun's other side. Significant,  though, that the maker couldn't identify a specifically American animal and resorted to an imaginary one.  It's also interesting to see how decoration changed with the time...

April 2, 2019 Gallery 374 is mostly devoted to parade armor. I learn that the embossing (repousse') process, which involved the raising and chiseling away of the armor's surface, significantly reduced its strength as well as its ability to deflect weapons. But it allowed for fantastically elaborate designs. In fact, some of the shields reproduce scenes from contemporary engravings.  One wood and leather shield from 16th century Italy, vividly painted on its concave inner surface, calls to mind  a faience plate.  Today's work, made in Augsburg about 1525, may have been made for a noble of the Radziwill family. (These galleries remind me how little I know of Polish history.) It provides a window into what male fashions of the day looked like, since, as the caption notes, it reproduces in steel, with embossing, etching, and gilt insets, the puffed sleeves and slashings (here indicated by crescent-shaped cutouts) of a man's costume, or more specifically,  the cos...

April 1, 2019 In gallery 373, I learn that by the end of the 13th century,  northern Italian cities, especially Milan and Brescia, were famous for their armor-making and were exporting their products all over Europe. The gallery has many examples of Italian armor; most memorable to me is a sallet (a new word!), a helmet with a hinged chin-guard in the shape of a lion's head made around 1475-1480.  The head,  fashioned of gilt copper fitted over a plain steel helmet, features a curly mane, inlaid glass eyes, and an open mouth (through which the wearer  looked out)  lined with fearsome fangs,  The helmet must have been very impressive - and also quite a load: It weighs almost 8 pounds.   The gallery also includes many examples of German armor, a number etched with religious figures. There's an interesting German helmet, made aound 1550, that reflects the influence of the conical, pointed headgear worn by the Turkish cavalry. Today's object is nei...