The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY was founded in 1870.
Flying higher now with an expanded commitment in memoriam George Floyd’s murder, May 2020, to exhibit and collect the arts and crafts of a multi-centric world.
Wings and related things lifting our spirits at this most difficult time. At any time.
Winged Goddess, faience, 1295-712 BCE; Egpyt. Metropolitan Musuem of Art, NY
Grave Stele with a Little Girl and Doves, Parian marble, 450-440 BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Inlay of a Falcon with Spread Wings; faience, 4th century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The god Horus who is usually shown hovering protectively over the ruler.
One of two bronze statues of girls chasing partridges, Roman, Early Imperial, late 1st century BCE or early 1st century ACE.
Private collection on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Pair of Eagle Brooches, gold with garnets, Ostrogothic, c. 500 ACE.
Lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on long term display. Photo from the net
Ear flares, 3rd to the 7th century, Peru (Moche) of hammered gold, turquoise, sodalite and shell inlay. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Plate Depicting a Female Figure Riding a Fantastic Winged Beast, silver: gilded, chased and engraved with applied elements.
Iran, Umayyad period (661-770). Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Tile with Image of a Phoenix, late 13th century; stonepaste: modeled, underglaze-painted in blue and turquoise, luster-painted on opaque white ground, Iran. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise, 1445, tempera and gold on wood.
Giovanni di Paolo (di Grazia), 1398-1492, Sienna, Italy. Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Musuem of Art, NY
Eagle Pendant, gold, 11th-16th century, Veraguas, Panama. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The Annunciation, tempera and gold on wood, 1485-92 (with some light disturbance in bands across the painting).
(Allesandro di Mariano Filipepi) Botticello, 1444/45-1510, Forence, Italy. Robert Lehman collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
As small as an Ipad and the most exquisite representation of this subject that I have seen.
The grey pillars provide the material stability of an image which hovers on the edge of our expectation. They are a contrast to the fragility of the figures and to their enlivening colours.
St. Michael, the Archangel, glazed terracotta, c. 1475.
Andrea della Robbia, 1435-1525, Florence, Italy. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Psychopomp taking people at the hour of their death to their death.
Dish: The Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche, enamel, partly gilded on copper, Limoges, 1558.
Pierre Reymond, 1513-after 1584, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The Musicians, oil on canvas, 1597. Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), 1571-1610. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Thought to have been painted from life even if Cupid is in the frame with the half-body structure which made the artist famous when he reached Rome.
Mara Theresa, Infanta of Spain (1638-1683), oil on canvas, 1651-4. Velazquez, 1599-1660, Spanish. Metropolitan Museum, NY.
A Young Woman and a Cavalier, oil on canvas. No date.
Cornelis Bischop, 1630-1674, Dutch. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A Bejewelled Maiden with a Parakeet, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Golcondoa, India, 1670-1700.
Inscribed in Persian ‘Portrait of Zeb Al-Nisa, daughter of Alamgir’. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Pannier, 1760-1770. Red silk taffeta and red silk velvet ribbon over cane hoops with metal hinges. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Worn throughout the 18th century in Europe to hold out voluminous gowns.
Great Indian Fruit Bat (Pteropus Giganteus), pencil, ink and opaque watercolour on paper, c. 1777-1782; Calcutta, India.
Attributed to Bhawani Das or a follower.
Sweet flesh because of its diet; sacred to some populations; but proscribed by the Indian Government probably for its harbour of viruses noxious to humans.
Incense Burner in the Shape of a Rooster, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), 18th Century, cloisonne enamel on copper. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Young Prince Holding a Falcon, oil on canvas, 1820, Iran. Unknown painter. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Young Woman with Ibis, 1857-58, reworked 1860-62, oil on canvas.
Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Not clear what meaning this image had for the artist
Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1864, oil on canvas. Gustave Moreau, 1826-1898, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The riddle the Sphinx asks is: what creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon; and three in the evening. The answer is Man.
The bodies in the foreground are of those who got the answer wrong.
Young Lady in 1866, oil on canvas, 1866.
Edouard Manet, 1832-1883. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
A painting about the senses.
Photo of a Minton peacock by the BBC, UK
Peacock, lead-glazed earthenware, 1876, Minton, founded 1793. Modeled by Paul Comolera, 1818-1897, French. On loan from a private collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Brooch and Cufflinks, c. 1880, multicoloured gold and platinum.
Tiffany and Co., American founded 1837. Promised gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Angeli Laudantes, dyed wool and silk on undyed cotton warp, 1898.
Cartoon by John Henry Dearle, 1860-1932, British, based on a design by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1833-1898, British. Woven by Merton Abbey Tapestry Works. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Moth pendant, 1900, gold, champleve enamel, citrines, carved horn. Made in Paris. Lucien Gaillard, 1861-1942. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Vase of blown, acid-edged and gilded glass made between 1901 and 1915 by the Honesdale Decorating Company which operated in Honesdale, Pennsylvania between 1901 and 1932. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Choir rail from All Angels Church, NY (demolished 1978). Limestone, installed 1900 in memory of the Cornell family.
Carved by Karl Bitter, 1867-1915, born Austria. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Louis C. Tiffany, 1848-1933, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; photo from the web
Portrait Face Mask, wood, hemp, pigment, 19th-20th century.
Baule Peoples, Ivory Coast. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Flying Dutchman, 1920, oil on board.
Man Ray, 1890-1976, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The museum notes that the paint, applied directly with a palette, was a Dada rejection of conventional easel painting with a brush. In legend, the sails of the Flying Dutchman were in tatters and this ship was doomed to sail forever.
Carousel, 1968, acrylic on canvas.
Sam Gilliam, 1933-2022, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Untitled, 1977, string and nails, and details.
Kazuko Miyamoto, Japanese, born 1942. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
This is string arranged taut by means of nails between wall and floor. The artist diagrammed instructions which are used every time this piece is installed.
The Sense of Sight, oil on canvas, 1986.
Christopher Le Brun, British born 1951. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Hat, 2003, haute couture, black braided straw with polychrome butterflies of painted turkey feathers.
Philip Treacey, British born Ireland 1966. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Between Heaven and Earth, 2006, aluminum and copper wire. El Anatsui, Ghanaian born 1944. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Iris Van Herpen, Dutch born 1984. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Right, purple synthetic satin embroidered with purple ostrich feathers, polychrome printed feathers and paper butterflies, 2018.
Jeremy Scott, American born 1975 for the House of Moschino, Italian founded 1983.
Free Essence-131, laminated sheet glass, 2019.
Ikuta Niyoko, born 1953 Japan. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
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Sitting in its own dedicated wing overlooking Central Park, the Temple of Dendur
Egyptian temple built of sandstone by the Roman governor of Egypt in 15 BCE on commission of the Emperor Augustus. It was dedicated to Isis and Osiris and two deified sons of a Nubian chief.
Given to the United States for work done to save several sites in the wake of the building of the Aswan dam, it has been in the Metropolitan Museum since the late 1970s.
To the right and left as one approaches the temple are statues of Amenhotep III, c. 1390 BCE. Originally in Thebes.
Within the temple, a statue of the priestess Tagerem dating from c. 300BCE. She displays the female form deemed perfect in her time: demure and alluring.
The sphinx dates to 1460 BCE and is one of several smashed to smithereens on purpose by a ruler of Egypt. These sphinxes had formally lorded it near a temple dedicated to Hatshepsut. Its reconstruction is marvelous.
No information about the provenance of the crocodile.
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Began my day with wings of delight: beauty and fun. Thank you for this pleasure.