365 Days at the Met

 April 29, 2025 The works in gallery 637 thrust me forward a hundred years or so into what feels like an entirely different world -  one that is secular, hedonistic, and marked by abundance. This is, of course, a simplification: The introductory wall sign notes that paintings of Biblical and mythological scenes continued to have the highest prestige in the Low Countries.  But the Reformation and a burgeoning middle class induced painters to take on different kinds of subjects, and specifically, to present scenes of everyday life - the theme of this gallery.  I hadn't really thought about the role of the Reformation in shaping art markets, but of course it makes sense that artists, with  fewer commissions to decorate churches or create private devotional images of saints, were incentivized to explore new themes. On first glance, I thought that all the paintings on display were the works of  Netherlandish artists, but the first painting I looked at closely tu...

 April 25, 2025 I'm going to start off by grousing about something different: the food at the Met. I arrived around 12:45, tired and hungry after a long walk to and a long wait at the doctor's office and headed for the cafeteria ("The Eatery," as the Met likes to call it), only to find it was closed. There was a long line of people waiting to get into one of the cafes that backs onto Central Park, and a line, too, waiting to get through the self-service line at the Balcony Cafe. I pay an extra $100 a year for the level of membership that allows me to use the Members' Lounge, where I found that I could get seated at 2 (it was then 1:15), I was allowed to sit in a waiting area where I surreptitiously nibbled some almonds and a Fig Newton. But what a drag! I know the Met is remodeling to expand the Costume Institute - a money-maker ,it seems; is the cafeteria closed for that reason? But it seems outrageous to me that anyone thinking to have lunch at the Met is going ...

 April 21, 2025 Gallery 635 catapults me back into the 15th century and even earlier. It's another example of the unintelligible system for numbering galleries that the Met has adopted. But one could also say that my insistence on visiting galleries in numerical order is equally crazy. (I think that's the first time I've acknowledged this possibility!)  The gallery contains many small painted panels depicting religious scenes, along with small painted crosses and a remarkable small bronze plaque showing the entombment of Christ that was meant to be held in the hands. (That supremely ugly head of John the Baptist on a platter that I wrote about on Day 231 has found its way here as well.) "Oh, a gallery of objects for private devotion" is my immediate reaction, and I wonder if I would have had the same response when I began this project. I think not, and I realize how much I've learned. The works come from Italy, Burgundy, and the Low Countries, and many are by ...

 April 19, 2025 The paintings in Gallery 634 again present an array of genres - history painting, a scene from the Trojan War, numerous portraits - and I again wonder what organizing theme the curator has come up with. The title of the introductory wall sign: "Revolution." More correctly, if slightly more long-windedly, it might be "The French Revolution: Antecedents and Aftermath." Here is where Houdon's bust of Diderot, considered on Day 187, has come to rest, as has the sculptor's bust of Voltaire; I suppose one might see these writers' intellectual curiosity and rationalism as contributing to the spirit of revolution. The gallery also holds Bouilly's painting of the crowd assembled at the Louvre to view David's painting of Napoleon crowning Josephine, the subject of Day 233's entry,  so the subjects depicted extend beyond the Revolution itself.   (I do wonder why the museum has so many galleries of 18th century French paintings. Some are ...

 April 14, 2025 Gallery 633 displays portraits made of prominent political leaders and other French notables between about 1750 and 1830.  This is where David's portrait of Antoine Lavoisier and Mme. Lavoisier discussed ion Day 233 now hangs; I'm glad I discovered this early, because otherwise I would have written about this painting a second time; it's definitely my favorite work in the gallery. The introductory wall sign notes the turbulent political conditions under which political figures lived. The gallery contains two portraits of Talleyrand. I confess that I know little about him, but I read that he served successively under Louis XVI, the Revolutionary government, Napoleon, and the restored kingdom of Philippe - and I'm impressed by his evident political acumen and ability to make himself  invaluable to so many different heads of state. The same introductory sign emphasizes that France's wealth before the Revolution derived largely from its colonial territor...

 April 4, 2025 Gallery 632 is, on first glance, another odd assemblage of 18th century French paintings of various genres: history paintings, paintings with religious subjects (including one entitled "The Triumph of Mordecai [sic]," which makes me question whether the story of Esther was well known, and if so why), still lifes, animal pictures, and portraits. What theme could possibly unify this gallery, I wondered? But actually, the introductory placard succeeds in doing this and proved interesting and instructive. Headlined "Hierarchy, Gender, and the French Academy," it noted that while painters of historical and religious scenes still ranked highest in the judgment of the Academie,  consumer tastes were shifting to portraits, scenes of daily life, still lifes, and paintings of animals. Women painters were largely relegated to these "lesser" genres, and until the fall of the French monarchy, only four women were allowed into the Academie at any one time...

  March 31, 2025 I think it must be quite hard to write the introductory signage for these 18th century French galleries, which contain lots of portraits, some paintings on set themes (a woman reads a love letter, e.g.), some outdoor scenes, and so on. The curator(s) seems to have taken the approach of describing culture in general and its relationship to art in particular.  Gallery 631's sign bears the headline "Urban Luxuries," noting that arts patrons were leaving the royal court at Versailles for well-appointed Parisian townhouses. Presumably the two portraits that are the subjects of today's entry graced these residences. I selected Jean Honore' Fragonard's portrait of Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson, an aristocratic salon hostess, with her dog because I find it utterly charming.  In the painting (which measures, I would guess, 38 inches high and 32 inches wide), Mme. and the little dog she holds are basically shown is profile from below the waist up, but...