An afternoon at the Met

A visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art is pretty much a compulsory element of any trip to New York. I think I have only failed to go on one visit – eight years ago when I went there, but they wouldn’t let me in because I had a too-big bag (and these were the very paranoid years immediately after 9/11). But on all my other trips I have made the pilgrimage and this time was no different – I just waited til James had arrived to do it.

Being us, and somewhat predictable, we headed straight for the arms and armour section. Nothing like a bit of medieval plate to get the day going. I particularly love the samurai area though – the swords are things of exiquisite beauty.

Our taste for ancient weaponry and armour satisfied, we could then take in the rest of the Met. Well, let’s be honest, not quite the rest as we only had about 4 hours, but certainly chunks of it.
There was the American hall, which is a beautiful place just of itself.

I was also quite taken with this sculpture….

The classical sculpture and art section was also pretty impressive. The sculpture at the top of this post was one of my favourites, but there were lots of wonderful sculptures, and the area is beautiful as well.

That’s Hadrian’s head by the way.

The Roman mosaic found in Israel (I think) was very impressive. Must admit we didn’t have time to watch the video on its excavation.

We also looked at medieval art and a quick wander through the Pacific gallery and Asian galleries as well as some time amongst the paintings. I think that 4-5 hours is about museum-limit, so we gave up about that point and enjoyed the walk back along Fifth Avenue by the park, replete with culture.

The Met

Had a nice wander around the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. It is so huge that, even though there were a gazillion people there getting out of the rain, the galleries themselves didn’t seem very crowded.

Went to a cool Impressionists and Early Modern Art special exhibition (where picture taking was not allowed).  Some beautiful Renior paintings in particualr which I had never seen before.

And then indulged myself with a visit to the Medieval gallery and the favourite – the arms and armour section.

Then it was back to the Paley Centre (formerly the Museum of Television and Broadcasting) for another afternoon of 1980s television watching. It is amazing watching some of the discussions about AIDS from the period, and fascinating how it has just become a fact of life for us nowadays when it was so controversial and generated so many television special reports back then. Also, let me say once again, Reagan really was a dufus, not unlike a certain current President. But surely no first lady is quite as spooky as Nancy.

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