MET

Mike & I spent an hour or so at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday. We certainly saw some beautiful things, but Heidi, will you please show me around the next time you come to New York? I am certainly not an art expert- I never even took Art History in college. Sigh. I don't think I appreciate our proximity to Museum Mile as much as I should.

van Gogh's Vase of Roses

van Gogh's Bouquet of Flowers in Vase

Many of the statues were missing body parts- some of them quite vital, I think. I thought this was funny.

Perseus with the Head of Medusa (Canova) & another guy with a very large body & a very small head {these two were lucky to have avoided breakage in key areas}.

Canova, the preeminent sculptor of the age of Neoclassicism, was a prodigiously talented carver of marble. In Canova's hands the stone yielded brilliant effects, both pristine and sensual, fulfilling the notions of a classical past embraced by his contemporaries. Here Perseus stands coolly triumphant, holding up the severed head of the snake-haired gorgon Medusa, the sight of which will turn anyone into stone for gazing on it. The pose vividly recalls the Apollo Belvedere, the work of antiquity most admired in Canova's era. The first version of the Perseus was acquired by Pope Pius VII as a replacement for the Apollo itself, which Napoleon had removed from the Vatican and shipped to the Louvre in Paris. The Perseus was so successful that it remained as a companion to the returned Apollo when the Congress of Vienna compelled the restitution of the Napoleonic booty. The Museum's version was purchased from Canova by the Polish countess Valeria Tarnowska.

The Youthful St. John the Baptist, and a very pretty marble wall with more naked people missing important body parts.



This is the ancient representation of Abby & Oscar {my sisters wiener dogs}.

Aquamanile in the form of Aristotle & Phyllis - late 14th Century

An aquamanile is a vessel for pouring water used in the ritual of washing hands in both religious and secular contexts—by the priest before Mass and in a private household before a meal. The subject of this celebrated example is the moralizing legend of Aristotle and Phyllis, which achieved popularity in the late Middle Ages. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and tutor of Alexander the Great, allowed himself to be humiliated by the seductive Phyllis as a lesson to the young ruler, who had succumbed to her wiles and neglected the affairs of state. Encouraging Alexander to witness his folly, Aristotle explained that if he, an old man, could be so easily deceived, the potential consequences for a young man were even more perilous. The ribald subject indicates that this aquamanile was made for a domestic setting, where it would have doubled as an object of entertainment for guests at the table.

My new friend {by the way- I think that Egyptians were quite small. I would have been a pretty huge mummy if I had lived then- this guy was big, but the mummy's were tiny}.

We found ourselves in the middle of a rainstorm {with no umbrellas} after leaving the museum in the afternoon. We found a great dessert place by necessity {seeking shelter} called Lady M. The Mille Crepes we ordered was absolutely divine.

We hopped on the subway & headed down to Trader Joe's @ Union Square. It was still raining {hence the stringy/straight hair on me, and Mike's poof}. We decided to take the bus home in lieu of the subway. Never again! It took about 45 minutes, although we did get a nice tour of the East Side of Manhattan.