New York City 2011, Page 2
I have to share this picture of Diane & me in front of a painting, Princesse de Broglie by Ingres. This is one of those paintings that really captures the look of fabric and the shine of metal. And the Princesse is almost as pretty as Diane.
I think this is our only picture with Frank in it! Of course, no flashes are allowed in the museum. Some rooms are brighter than others, and this doesn't happen to be one of them so it's a little dark.
We spent probably 9 hours in the MMoA between Friday and Saturday, plus on Saturday we went to the Frick Collection. Here are some links to a few of the items that we saw:
- Bronzino's Portrait of a Young Man was featured in our course. The course did not mention, though, the fun details like the face in the table. These subtle things make the painting much more fun.
- Self portrait of Ruben - the Met website has a great description to go along with this entry.
- Renoir's Madame Georges Charpentier - the child on the chair is her son.
- Wheat Fields by Ruisdel, one of the Dutch paintings - Frank is very knowledgeable on the Dutch artwork. He pointed out to us that the painting is divided into 3 sections, left to right, similar to the panels that were very common shortly before this. You have to use the zoom feature to be able to see the ships on the left.
- Signac's Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde - if you enlarge this picture, you can see that the image, which looks like a hazy morning on the sea, is actually made of little 'pixels' of color.
- Two interesting related works of art were the American artist Thomas Cole's The Oxbow, from 1836, and Stephen Hannock's The Oxbow from 2001. I like both of these. You need to zoom in on Hannock's to get the full impact - and see the words he has inserted as part of the landscape. Unfortunately the resolution is not good enough to actually read what is written.
- They have entire rooms that have been disassembled from building being demolished, and reassembled in the museum. Our favorite is probably this small Gubbio Studiollo with it's illusionary wood paneling. What look like cupboards with scientific and musical instruments are actually flat walls with inlaid wood. Another fun room is the Venice Room, which qualifies as baroque in the traditional meaning of the word (overly ornate). The 'fabric' on the ceiling is actually stucco work.
- Central and South American cultures tended to be rather violent, so I'm fond of this exception - a smiling artifact from a culture we know little about because the climate has destroyed most of their artifacts.
- The Abduction of Rebecca was a hot topic of conversation, because it is referencing not the biblical event, but the Ivanhoe novel.
- Portrait of a Carthusian is particularly appealing because not only is it meticulously painted, and you can see the stray hairs in his beard, but a fly has landed on the painted 'frame' at the bottom.
- Head of an Old Woman, so beautifully detailed and so different than the sleek and flawless skin usually painted at that time.
We could, of course, highlight many many other items. Mom at least will probably remember the mounted print I had in my room, presumably a gift from Diane, of Goya's painting of a young boy with birds and cats:
And here is a picture of Paul in front of the very impressive display of horses in armor.
I want to share one more picture, of the pretty area around the Temple of Dendur, with the lovely reeds coming out of the water.
As previously mentioned, we went to the Frick Collection on Saturday morning. This is a small but select collection. They were featuring St Francis in the Desert, and for good reason. Some of the other 'favorites' from this museum are:
- The Four Seasons by Boucher. There is a different scene for each season. Paul noted that Winter is the only one where someone looks out directly at the viewer.
- Liotard's Trompe l'Oeil was one of my favorites. At first glance it looks like items hanging or tacked to wood, then you realize that these are painted. And after that you realize - but mostly only after reading the description - that the wood isn't wood at all, but painted canvas that looks like wood.
- Monet is so known for color, that this Vétheuil in Winter is a very unusual work for him.
- This Renoir of a mother and children is very famous.
- One of Paul's favorites was this Turner painting, Antwerp. The wind seems to be coming in from different directions, causing a particularly choppy sea.
- This early Temptation of Christ work seems like a great example of pieces from that time.
On Sunday we had our longer walk in Central Park. We went up to the Conservatory Garden. Diane lamented that we were not seeing it with the beautiful Spring blooms (and if you look at the on-line link you can see the blossoming trees clearly in the picture). But the garden is still very nice, and it was a lot of fun for a budding gardener (that would be Anne) to see. Here we are at the large central plaza.
You can see in this next picture that there are many shady spots to sit in. It was a slightly cool Sunday morning so the area had few people.
There were birds on the fountain statue. The birds did not seem very phased by our presence.
On the other side of the green is another statue "Three Dancing Maidens". I added a fourth, although since my back was still stiff my form is a little off!
After leaving the Garden, we took a walk around the reservoir before having to head back and catch our train. Here is a fine view across the water.
Near by is a quaint bridge that Diane informed us was recently used in the movie 'Enchanted'.
This next picture is of Belvedere Castle, which we were told was used in Sesame Street!
And finally, a picture of Paul's favorite entrance to the park.
Updated July 2020
