Over the summer, my wonderful significant other Michele and I visited the Cloisters museum in Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan. The location itself is absolutely marvelous; the walk up to the museum is through a completely green park that gives off a “forestlike” feeling. There’s a rocky walkway with arches and benches that overlooks both the river and the rest of the city.
Cloisters is definitely one of New York City’s best kept secrets. It’s a small “museum” that focuses on architecture and art from mainly medieval Europe (which is ironic, because the walls inside the museum all have outlets for hipsters to charge their iPads before taking pictures). I think the architecture was my favorite part; the villas and the rooftops as well as the pillars pictured below all stuck out to me more than anything else.
The weirdest part about the museum, I’d say, is its hardcore focus on paintings and murals of unicorns. Why on earth would people obsess over unicorns, you ask? Great question, I don’t know either. Might have something to do with imagination and a passionate yearning for discovering the unknown, but that’s just my opinion.
It is an amazing place! Once inside it feels like Italy. If you’re lucky, you’ll visit it with your Great Works I (2800) class.
For one of my assignments for my art history class, I actually wrote about that painting. It is called The Unicorn in Captivity. Although it could allude to imagination and a yearning for discovering the unknown, this painting can also refer to Jesus or can relate to the Age of Chivalry. It relates to Jesus in the sense that the unicorn symbolizes innocence and purity while the garden represents all of mankind. “Jesus,” or the unicorn, is strapped to a tree and cannot escape, which can relate to mankind’s betrayal when he died on the crucifix. At the same time, this painting can be related to medieval knights. Knights at the time would do anything to be with and satisfy the one they love. The collar around the unicorn’s neck symbolizes the love a man has for a woman (even going to the extent of submitting himself to his lady). Basically, this painting has multiple meanings and shows that an artwork can be open to multiple interpretations. What one may see in one painting might be different from what someone else sees.
Anyway, great post! And I’m definitely adding The Cloisters to my places to visit!