365 Days at the Met

 October 28, 2024 Gallery 604 holds mostly small religious paintings, especially ones of the Madonna and Child, but also a number of other pieces, including a couple of marble reliefs, also of the Madonna and Child (one discussed on Day 229), two substantial wooden chests, a charming Mino da Fiesole marble bust of John the Baptist as a young boy, a large painted tray that was created to celebrate the birth of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and lusterware from Spain, The introductory signage notes that these works are meant to  represent the kinds of objects that might be found in the home of a noble family in Renaissance Italy, where they served as wedding gifts, celebrations of ancestors and other relatives,  and objects of private devotion. The placard also states that "household inventories show that nearly every home, even the most modest, had an image of the Madonna and Child hanging on its walls." Maybe so, but I have to say that I'm dubious of this claim. Really, did the...

  October 22, 2024 Gallery 603 focuses on paintings in the International Gothic style.  I've heard this term before but couldn't have defined it, and I'm still not sure I can, but it seems to be characterized by backgrounds that frequently entail the lavish use of gold,  figures that are often attenuated and clothed in elegant fabrics, and a mix of fantastic and realistic elements. It's not surprising that, as the introductory signage explains, the style especially appealed to members of the aristocracy. I'm moved by a Fra Filippo Lippi panel depicting the Madonna and child enthroned and flanked by two angels.  The work, which was originally the centerpiece of a triptych, was painted around 1440 and measures perhaps 60 inches high and 26 inches wide.  I'm not quite sure what it's doing in this gallery,  because the bodies of Mary and the bambino have a rounded solidity that the figures in most of the other paintings lack. The Madonna and child are seated on...

October 21, 2024 Gallery 602 focuses on  15th century portraiture.  It includes works by both Italian artists (among them, Filippo Lippi,  Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Lorenzo di Credi) and their Northern counterparts (with  paintings by Dierck Bouts and Hugo van der Goes and several works by Memling. Many of the canvases were cut from larger paintings, where they served as donor portraits in religious scenes, but they function very well outside their original religious context. Indeed, an image of Saint Justina of Padua looks like nothing other than an elegantly dressed and well-coiffed young woman. (I see that I was so taken with this saint's picture that I wrote about her in entry 231; the gallery is also the new home of the Roselli portrait discussed on Day 227.)  It's easy to relate to these works, many of which portray older men with stubbly beards and faces that suggest they've lived through a lot, or attractive young women, for whom the paintings served as ...

October 17, 2024 After viewing the assemblage of altarpieces, panels that were once part of altarpieces, and other paintings  in this large gallery (601), my initial sense was that they lacked coherence.  The majority of the works I first viewed as I made my way around the room are by 14th and 15th century Italians - mostly Sienese (despite the concurrent special exhibition of Sienese painting a short distance away on the second floor, where some of the greater masterpieces have undoubtedly been transferred), but also painters from Florence, Arezzo, Cortona, and other locations. Inexplicably to me, the gallery also includes paintings by French, Netherlandish, and German artists. The Then I went back and reread the gallery description, located in a not very prominent place, and saw that the unifying trend is that early paintings were religious in nature - nothing more, nothing less.  I wonder how many visitors to the museum would be unaware of this, although, interestingly...