Day 378 - Introduction to the "new" galleries of European painting from 1300 to 1800

 September 23, 2024

Today's visit brings me back to the galleries of European paintings made between 1300 and 1800. These galleries were being remodeled and rehung during my earlier visits, and I was able to view only half of them. This is the last set of galleries of what has turned out to be a multi-year exploration of the museum; although other galleries are currently being redone - the whole Michael Rockefeller wing is a prominent example - I have to end this project at some point.

The remodeling seems to be as much a   remodeling as a physical one. The introductory placard says that the goal is to "draw out the inconsistencies and tattered edges of long-dominant storylines" and to question old assumptions. One of these is that there is a "Western tradition" contrasted with the rest of the globe. Another, I suppose, is that of European superiority. 

The principal works in Gallery 600, the introductory gallery,  have not changed - three immense Tiepolo paintings originally commissioned for the Palazzo Dolfin in Venice.  One of these, "The Triumph of Marius," was the subject of the entry for Day 225.  Given the size of these canvases, it's hard to imagine them in any other space. They are joined by two sculptures that, I surmise, are meant to reflect the influence of European artistic traditions far beyond the borders of Europe -  the bust of a 2nd or 3rd-century bodhisattva from Gandhara, and a grave marker in the form of a lion from 2nd or 3rd-century Egypt - as well as the wood-and-lacquer tray that's the subject of today's entry. 

The tray was made in the mid-18th century by Jose' Manuel de la Cerda, an Indigenous artist who worked in west-central Mexico. The tray is enormous, perhaps 44 inches in diameter, and combines classical and Asian imagery: The central scene, depicting an episode from TheAeneid, is surrounded by floral ornamentation.  The description attributes this admixture to Mexico's status as a site of both trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific trade.  

The problem with these small descriptive placards is that they are small and tell us only what the Met curators want us to know. What strikes me about this tray as remarkable is the fact that an Indigenous artist in 17th-century Mexico knew his Virgil. 

Plcards also tell us that Tiepolo created the works for the Palazzo Dolfin to celebrate Italian victories over adversaries. But surely there are other readings. I've already noted that the hero of The Triumph of Marius is not the victorious general but the defeated king Jugurtha.  And in the other canvases, which depict the Romans'  triumph over Carthage and over invading Germanic tribes, what one notes (or at least I note) is the tremendous gore and carnage of battle. The Dolfins were, I read, statesmen as well as warriors; perhaps the subtext of Tiepolo's work is that war is Hell, and the power to avoid it through diplomacy should also be celebrated.