365 Days at the Met

  February 27, 2025 As I scanned the roomful of portraits and paintings of classical and religious subjects in Gallery 627, along with the two large Panini works that were the subject of Day 239, I wondered what in the world the unifying theme of the gallery could be. The introductory sign is entitled "The Grand Tour" and notes the importance of a trip to Italy in the education and formation of the young gentleman.  The Panini paintings certainly exemplify that theme. But really, a better title would be "Artists Who Moved to and Died in Rome (or in Naples)." With the exception of Angelica Kauffmann and Anton Raphael Mengs (whose portrait, discussed on Day 238, has been moved here), most of these artists , who include Francesco Trevisani, Pierre Hubert Subleyras,  and the two painters whose works are the subject of today's entry, were unknown to me. I'm struck by Pierre Jacque Volaire's rather small (perhaps 48 inches across and 28 inches high) 1776 oil  ...

 February 24, 2025 I'd passed through Gallery 626 a number of times, noting that it contains works of art from the Spanish colonies in the Americas but not really looking at any of these works.  Today's visit to the gallery turned out to be a pleasant surprise: Many of the works, which deal with religious subjects and are largely by unidentified painters, were unexpectedly charming.  They have a distinctive, naive quality and characteristics that we associate with self-taught artists: simplified forms, flat lighting, a lack of single-point perspective "Our Lady of Valvanera," painted around 1770-1780 by an unknown artist in Cuzco, is a case in point. The very large canvas, which measures perhaps 10 feet long and 7 feet high and, unusually, is unframed, depicts the discovery of an image of the Virgin and Child within the hollow of a tree by Nuno Ortiz, a thief turned hermit.  The Virgin wears a dress whose elaborate embroidery is indicated with gold paint; both the ho...

  February 21, 2025 The wall sign that introduces Gallery 625 bears the title “Power and Portraiture in Spain,” but it might  equally well be called “Velasquez and Portraiture.” Velasquez painted four or five (one attribution is questionable) of the ten portraits hung in this room. Two others are by Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, Velasquez’ son-in-law and assistant, who imitated his father-in-law in his methods,  and two are by Murillo, who, the signage says, was also influenced by Velasquez The final portrait, by Sebastiano del Piombo, is supposedly of Columbus (but its date, after Columbus’ death, suggests that del Piombo may have painted Columbus’ son instead). This work looks nothing at all like the portraits of the Spanish painters, but it does illustrate the general principle that it was wealthy and important people who had their portraits painted. Painted and repainted, actually, since images were copied for use as diplomatic gifts, to let potential suitors know ...

 February 14, 2025 I knew it was cold and blustery today,  and I really didn't want to go outside.  I had to "bribe" myself with the prospect  of taking a cab to the museum, but since no taxi was in immediate sight, I ended up walking to the crosstown bus. Ditto with the return trip - I was briefly tempted by the line of taxis in front of the museum, but in the end, opted to take the bus, which, thankfully, came unusually quickly. I even got a seat right away.  In any event, I'm glad I went,  though I didn't stay all that long, since Gallery 624 is relatively small. Its theme is Spanish religious art, and it holds a number of works by Murillo, Zurbaran, and Ribera (though I learn that Ribera spent basically his entire career in Italy, so whether his paintings should hang here seems to me an open question).  The lovely Murillo Madonna and child that was the subject of the entry for Day 226 has been moved here, as have three large lusterware trays from t...

  February 10, 2025 400 days and, yes, counting.  The museum map indicates that I have 21 galleries to go. I'd hoped to make my final visit by my birthday, March 9, but this doesn't seem feasible. How short-sighted my idea of 365 visits in a year was - but how much purpose this project has injected into my life! I wonder what its next stage will be.  The theme of Gallery 623 is "The Classical Landscape." The introductory sign notes that 17th century artists from all over Europe went to Rome to study and to paint classical monuments and the Roman countryside.  (The latter, I learn, was known as the Campagna, which seems odd to me because nowadays, Campania is the region of which Naples is the capital.)   A look back at the entries for Days 305 and 306 reminds me that Rome's dominance of the artistic scene persisted into the 19th century.  The gallery holds a remarkable collection of paintings by Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. I don't much like the ...

 February 7, 2025 Gallery 622 takes as its theme the origins of French painting. The introductory signage discusses the founding of the academy of painting and sculpture and its goal of creating a distinctly French school,  characterized by simplified forms, glowing colors, and dedication to classical and historical themes.   I like George de La Tour’s “Penitent Magdalene” as well as his “The Fortune Teller,” but many of the works on display leave me rather cold.  They just don’t seem all that interesting to me. The forms are too simplified, the paint application too precise and superficial - not “painterly” enough. And I’m growing tired of images of figures holding string instruments ts (three of them in this gallery) as well as of Biblical and mythological characters.   I have to acknowledge, though, that I've been taught to look down on academic painters and to prize artists who broke away from the establishment, so that I'm not approaching these works with a...

  February 3, 2025 The introductory wall sign in gallery 621 is captioned "Flesh and the Spirit in the Age of Rubens." The sign notes that Rubens was among many Northern Counter-Reformation artists who sought to appeal to viewers' emotions. It goes on to say that Classical subjects (which I take to include religious subjects) offered what the sign describes as a "pretext," but I might term a "rationale," for sensual and even erotic images. Finally, it mentions the influence of Caravaggio's realism on Northern painters of the period. The gallery holds a number of notable works by Rubens. His enormous "Wolf and Fox Hunt" occupies one entire wall; I learn that such gigantic canvases were painted to replace tapestries, a much more expensive art form and that Rubens' assistants worked on the painting but that Rubens himself was responsible for the snarling, encircled wolves. There's also a lovely "Holy Family with Saints Francis a...