MET-itations by Leslie Sewell

 The Met has many art works that are not on display at any given moment.  Some of them rotate in a regular basis and some rarely.  This work titled Rooftops, Brooklyn by Fidelia Bridges is one seen rarely. Bridges was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1834 but moved to New York as a young woman.  She worked as a governess for a wealthy family and they thought so much of her talent that they paid for her to go to Art School in Philadelphia and when she finished they provided her a studio in their home in Brooklyn where she could work.  Although she was quite successful during her life and was compared to the much  better known Winslow Homer, after her death in 1923 she was almost completely forgotten.  The Met does have several of her works as do some other museums but unfortunately they are rarely exhibited.   She worked often in watercolor and her delicate works of gardens and flowers are lovely.  Her works of urban buildings were done when su...

 European Decorative Arts and Sculpture from 1850-1900. This wonderful French Art Deco fireplace surround caught my eye immediately when I entered the gallery.  It's made of glazed stoneware ceramic that is supposed to be very durable and fire proof.  The swirls cast you into a dream like state and the colors are vivid.  The face of the mask in the central medallion are mesmerizing. I began to imagine the kind of dwelling in which such a fireplace would have been housed.   Surely a castle like structure, not an ordinary house.  It would take a huge room to display it adequately.  It would have to have been placed at one end of room that you entered from the other end so its magnificence could be seen at first glance.  It would have dominated any room.  Although the stately rooms of this period did not contain a lot comfy furniture I can still imagine sitting before a blazing fire on a cold night and sipping a cup of China tea or a glass of re...

  Helene Schjerfbeck is a Finnish artist who worked in the early twentieth century.   Gallery 964 in the Lehman Wing of the museum is used for rotating exhibits and it appears that all of the art work on view has been loaned to the Met .  They do not appear to own any of her work which is an indication of how works by women were so often ignored by the Met and the larger art world until  recently.  These works which are mostly portraits of unnamed people going about their everyday tasks.  They have a delicacy and great attention to detail.  I was especially struck by the one above which exudes a calm feeling, the unnamed woman gazing at an unknown point with a light source somewhat undefined abut that suffuses the painting.  Although she studied in Paris and showed at some Salon shows there she has been little known outside of Finland where she is  considered a major artist.  Hopefully this Met exhibit will bring her a l...

  Way in the back of the museum, about as far as you can get from the massive front steps is Gallery 614.  And in an unobtrusive  corner of that gallery is one of the most famous paintings is the western world, Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Water Pitcher.  The day I was there I was practically alone in the gallery except for a troop of Chinese students and their Mandarin language teacher who floated through chattering and sweeping past the art in less than a minute.  Then I was free to contemplate the work.   The first thing that strikes my eye is the blue of the woman's dress.  They Met has also thoughtfully painted the wall behind the painting blue and this makes the blue in the painting stand out even more. The lace framing the woman's head is also eye-catching and directs attention to her serene and contemplative face. Although she's busy holding the water pitcher and touching the window she appears very meditative and calm. The stained glass wind...

  This lovely statue of Saint Catherine of Alexandria shows her trampling the crouching figure of Emperor Maxentius after she refused to renounce Christianity.  There are also stories that he wanted to marry her but she refused.  He then had her tortured and killed.  The plaque under her statue at the Met says this shows a triumph of virtue over tyranny.

 Because the Met is a living institution things don't always stay the same and exhibits change.  This long narrow gallery contains art from China but has several works I did not see the last time I was here.  This Tang dynasty horse and groom is one. The Tang dyasty from the seventh century to the ninth is one of the great flowering of artistic work of the world.  It was a period of cultural  growth, a golden period in Chinese history.   During this period the Chinese empire stretched from the Korean Penisula almost to Afganistan.  Art and poetry flourished.  Painting and calligraphy were important. The development of three color glazed ceramics like the horse above are a hallmark of the period.. There was also a rise in Buddhism during this period. Modern day Xi'An was the capital and it was a trading center for all of Asia.  Politically during this period the civil service exams that took the best and brightest young men from all classes to...