Day 363 - Stairwell


June 24, 2024

I knew beforehand that gallery 716 is just a stairwell. Not much to see, I thought - it called into question this whole "[just one] gallery a day" idea.  The visit seemed like an excuse to get in my daily exercise by walking across the park and back.

But when I got there,  I was glad I'd come. Monday is  traditionally the Met's slowest day, and when I arrived, about 20 minutes after the museum opened,  the route to the American galleries through the Egyptian collection seemed practically deserted and very peaceful. I felt envious of the people who were seeing the Temple of Dendur for the first time without all the usual hustle and bustle around them.  My stay in the museum was brief, and by the time I left, the place was much more lively, which is all to the good for the museum, if not necessarily for the viewer's experience.

And the stairwell repaid careful looking. It comes from the Wentworth House, discussed in the Day 360 entry, which was built in Portsmouth, New Hampshire between 1695 and 1700.  The stairwell was located just to the right of the front door, and the lovely dark paneling must have impressed visitors no end. (My camera completely fails to do justice to the luster of the wood; I wish the caption said what kind of wood it is.) Four steps lead up to a landing, then another seven (?) steps lead to another landing, and a final few steps lead uo the second floor. Each step seems to be marked by a turned baluster. The paneling combines straight geometric shapes - rectangles, squares, a trapezoid, a triangle - with curved moldings. The woodwork is absolutely beautiful. I wonder whether a panel under the steps opened up for storage. 

The steps are only about 40 inches wide, and I wonder how the Wentworths (or their servants) managed to get furniture or mattresses up them - perhaps hoisting the items over the railing? A morbid thought: I've seen coffin niches in Brooklyn brownstones. How were the bodies of the house's occupants brought downstairs?  
 

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