#met cloister museum

[thesingletraveller]

The Cloisters - Experiencing The Middle Ages in NYC

The Solo Scale: Make sure that you’ve got decent phone coverage and good directions if you’re headed out this way as it is a bit of a hike outside the city where you could get turned around, but wandering through Fort Tryon park to get to the Cloisters is a great solo activity. Did you know that the Met has a second property in New York? That wouldn’t be shocking, but what might be surprising…

[arthistoryanimalia]

#TextileTuesday :

Textile Fragment with Unicorn, Deer, Centaur and Lion

Made in Scandinavia (possibly Sweden), c.1500

Wool intarsia & applique with gilt leather & linen embroidery

52 3/4 × 52 3/8 in. (134 × 133 cm)

The Met Cloisters 2011.430

“This textile features a combination of real and imaginary creatures. The inscription, only partially legible and apparently mixing Latin and Italian, invokes the name of Christ and the Church, indicating the cloth’s original use in a religious context.”

[uwmspeccoll]

An Apocalyptic Manuscript Monday

This week we present our facsimile of the 14th-century Cloisters Apocalypse, published in 1971 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. As described in the introduction to the commentary about the manuscript, “[famine], pestilence, strife, and untimely death inspired apocalyptic fantasies and movements in Europe throughout the Middle Ages” (page 9), and this environmental influence led to the popularity of apocalyptic manuscripts like this French Apocalypse. Made in the 1330s for a Norman aristocratic couple, this manuscript has a few interesting details that set it apart from other Apocalypses, especially in relation to two other manuscripts in London (British Library, Add. Ms. 17333) and Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. Lat. 14410) that share similar formats, styles, and sequences with the Cloisters manuscript.

The first unique detail is the prefatory cycle of the life of Jesus in the introductory folios (1-2 verso). Since the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine (also known as the book of Revelation) was written by a titular St. John, prefatory cycles in Apocalypses usually consist of his life, rather than Christ’s. The other aspect of this manuscript that makes it distinct amongst its sister manuscripts is the addition of a dedication page on folio 38 verso. This page shows a man and woman kneeling in front of a tonsured saint and the Virgin and Child, respectively, representing the people for whom this manuscript was originally made for.

Interestingly, this manuscript also has multiple pages added to the original manuscript. Pasted on the inside front cover are handwritten provenance notes. The manuscript also did not originally include chapters and verses 16:14 through 20:3, and pages with this text were later added to the manuscript after the dedication page.

The materials used to create this manuscript include tempera, gold, silver, and ink on parchment with a later leather binding. If you are interested in seeing this unique Apocalypse manuscript, you can either use our facsimile, visit Gallery 13 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters where the original is on display, or view their digital presentation of the manuscript.

View other posts on our facsimiles of illuminated manuscripts.

– Sarah S., Special Collections Graduate Intern

[kourotrophos]

The Cloisters Playing Cards

1475-80 A.D., South Netherlandish, paper with pen and ink, opaque paint, glazes, and applied silver and gold

[voluptuarian]

Christmas at the Met Cloisters

[bruce-morrow]

The Met Cloisters, NYC, 2024

Photo: Bruce Morrow

[yiddishlore]

Black Magus, Germany, 15th century. Photo by me.

From the Met Cloisters.

[nonesuchrecords]

Cécile McLorin Salvant performs "D'un feu secret," from her new album, Mélusine, accompanied by Sullivan Fortner on harpsichord and lutist Dušan Balarin, in the Unicorn Tapestries Room at The Met Cloisters in this new video as part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's performance series, MetLiveArts. It’s the second of three performances she filmed there of songs from the album, following last week's title track.

[itsybitsy-arthistory]

The Met Cloisters

[thegreatandpowerfulsmarragdus]

[artschoolglasses]

Drying plants at the Met Cloisters

New York City, United States

[itsjustanne]

Top left photo from the MET on fifth ave: Roses, Vincent Van Gogh, 1890

Top right and bottom row from the MET Cloisters: Standing Virgin and Child, attributed to Nicklaus Gerhaert von Leyden, 1470; Enthroned Virgin and Child, artist unknown, 1280-1300; The Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg, attributed to Jean le Noir, before 1349

[enmva]

[hooliganists]

Museum Spotlight- The Met Cloisters

While the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of my favorite museums in New York, I’d only managed to visit The Cloisters this past winter. Located in Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, this offshoot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is easy enough to get to from the city via public transportation, but I chose to drive in for my visit. Since it was winter, there weren’t a lot of other visitors…

[xoxosteven]

[ultrajustjo]

Week 5: Visio divina

Spanish Paschal Candlestick Contemplation

The sun is finally out, but Greek class beckons, which means I'm stuck indoors for a few more hours. Before I idoú the logos, let me offer this contemplation on the candlestick and Matthew 8.

15th-Century Spanish Paschal Candlestick at The Cloisters, New York City. Photo taken Autumn 2022.

Recap

Our reading is from Matthew 8 where Jesus encounters demons and sends them into nearby pigs, who run and drown themselves. What happens when demons speak to you, you Ghostbuster them, and they run away and die thereby causing damage to the local economy? You get asked to leave. It's tough being God. Any parent who's ever cared for a beloved but immature and ungrateful child can relate to this story. Here it is in proper form using the NIV:

28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”

30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”

32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

Observations

Jesus was just traveling, but he couldn't get past the two tortured men who were violent. The demons engaged with him; they were not sought out by Jesus. Without any action on Jesus's part (as relayed in Matthew), the miserable spirits begged Jesus for mercy and Jesus obliged. The demons used their inherent violence once within the pigs. No humans were physically harmed, while two were released from bondage -- all with Jesus's one word, "Go."

How is it that demons recognized the nature of Jesus but his friends, family, and disciples did not?

The town's rejection of Jesus foreshadows humanity's rejection of Jesus on the cross.

How does this story of God's power exhibited through Christ influence your observations of the Spanish Paschal Candlestick?

Consider the tiers of the candlestick: The largest, lower tier features panels of disciples; the second tier, smaller in diameter with fewer panels, features a handful of saints who were probably significant to that Spanish population; the smallest, top tier features humanity and God's creation in depictions of the Garden of Eden, Adam, and Eve. Looming tall above the tiers is an incense-filled candlestick that will support a lit Christ candle at Easter.

As noted in the audio description of the candle (linked in the initial post), congregants could move entirely around the candlestick and view it from all sides. The incense and flickering candlelight draw the body into a sensation-filled experience -- this art, while functional, was intended to engage its audience.

The candlestick is 77 x 17 1/4 in. (195.6 x 43.8 cm). For those of you who don't "math," that's as tall as a basketball player at 6'5".

Today, the phrase "appointed time" in verse 29 stands out to me. There is an implicit understanding in these words of an expectation of future action (judgment day?), which also seems to imply understanding of past actions (Creation?). Maybe this spatial interpretation is farcical, but the demons' recognition of Jesus does suggest previous familiarity and enforces an idea of continuous, uninterrupted existence on the part of Jesus (and the demons). This is not a new interpretation, but sometimes it's good to stop and state the obvious.

The Spanish paschal candlestick can be seen to reflect a continuous, uninterrupted existence of the faith on the part of humans, once introduced to Christ Jesus. With the Christ candle above, the piece also reflects the continuity of Christ, himself, as recognized by the demons. The tiers on the candle place all of Creation beneath the representation of Christ via the Easter candle. From the Garden of Eden and representations of the beginning of humanity in the persons of Adam and Eve, to the saints below them, and the foundational disciples of the Church in the lowest tier, the panels show an understanding of Jesus's continuous and eternal nature.

In its functional use, the Candlestick was to be elevated above the people to represent Christ's resurrection and ascension to Heaven. Unlike the townspeople in Matthew 8 who met Jesus and asked him to leave, the Spanish parishioners gathered near the paschal candle and revered the Host (Jesus) housed within the altar.

Final thoughts

I like to think I'm insightful, but that's probably inaccurate. However, this meme came across my phone today and it is scarily accurate.

In the initial post for Week 5, I mentioned my love for The Cloisters. My family first went to The Cloisters to seek the unicorn tapestries after reading about them in The Magic Treehouse books. When I found that the pop culture portion of the tapestries' wiki page did not include local author Mary Pope Osborne, a legend in her own time, I added the reference. How many wiki pages have you altered? I can only remember doing this one.

The Cloisters is a castle fortress that overlooks the Hudson River in Upper Manhattan. It's worth a visit. My daughter posed me here after we dined in the magnificent, central courtyard.

Humans are still responding to the paschal mystery 500 years after the Spanish produced a gilded and paneled larger-than-life candlestick. Here are two different, modern, musical, and Spirit-filled responses to the resurrection. First is Karen Clark Sheard, a lifelong performer and First Lady of the Church of God in Christ.

And, in a different but related style, here is Contemporary Christian pioneer Matthew Ward singing a song by his late sister, Annie Herring.

See you next week in this crazy life.