Daily Archives: November 9, 2013

Visiting the Met

“Numerous burials from the Roman Period were found in the forecourts of the temple of King Mentuhotep II (ca. 2061-2010 b.c.)… The woman’s wreathed head rests upon a gold pillow. Her white tunic has broad black clavi (stripes), and she wears a mantle with greenish black orbiculi (circular ornaments), ornaments popular from the late third century.”

When I went to the Egyptian unit at the Met Museum, I was expected actual, deceased mummified bodies to be on display.  I was also expecting sarcophagus upon sarcophagus to be available to us. Unfortunately, all that were available to us were old pottery and little knick-knacks like kitchen cutlery and things that Egyptian women embroidered in their hair. After frantically searching for “mummies” and passing by all the little things, I decided to take my time to read the little descriptions. Little did I know that there was more in this unit than meets the eye. There is so much history behind these little glass protection cases than I thought.

It was very interesting to see how different people hundreds of years lived back then. Many knick-knacks were very similar to things we have today. However, some were too abstract for me to tell right away. This “mummy with a Painted mask Depicting a Woman Holding a Goblet” stood out to me compared to the other things that were in the exhibit. I was amazed at how small this mummy was. I later researched this and found out this was approximately 61 in, about 5 feet. This is unusually small for a woman. Were people back then shorter than us? Is this cover completely irrelevant to the mummified person inside? What was the purpose of drawing on the cover of a mummified person? What did the goblet that the woman was holding representing? Was this person of any significant importance?

This was my first time at the Met and I hope to visit the Met again soon to take a closer look.

Mummies are so mysterious… I love mummies… 🙂

 

Trip to the Met

Admittedly, I have never really known about the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Before getting there, I even confused it with the Museum of Modern Art (which I now can’t imagine how I got to that conclusion). But upon entering the Met, I was blown away by the size and the grandeur of the museum. It was definitely a memorable and distinctive museum.

There was always one section of art that really had a large impression on me: Greek and Roman art. It’s hard to describe it when you first walk into a room with architecture from that time period. It’s grand, it’s bold, and it’s something so monumental it leaves you in awe.

Take this column featured prominently, for example:

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Upon learning from a classmate, the column was originally too tall to be placed into the room, so it had to be cut down in order for it to be displayed. T most interesting part to me was the way the column was presented. I’m used to seeing the long, sleek, and white columns usually found in Greek architecture, but the broken up column found here really was in stark contrast to what I’ve assumed all Greek columns to be. Digging into the column’s history, it was apparently made during in the Hellenistic period and made out of marble. It originally came out of the Temple of Artemis, a temple that honored the goddess of hunt. I certainly got the impression that it was and exquisite and grand column. Looking at the top and bottom closely, it looked like a meticulous work of art, rivaling to that found in paintings. It seemed really strange that so much work was put into a column, but seeing as it came from a temple dedicated to a goddess, I understand why it was important to really make sure each contribution to the temple was finely crafted.

As I walked through the towering pillars and wide open spaces, I decided to finally look at the various artifacts the museum presented.  I was pleasantly surprised that these artifacts are just as interesting as the architecture. One object that really caught my eye looked like an upside down chandelier:

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Apparently it was a vase made for offerings, called the Terracotta kernos. It was from the Cycladic culture, which is a culture that began in the early Bronze Age around the region of Greece. I was awestruck about how this vase’s purpose was to house offerings. It seemed like a rustic piece of furniture; I would have never imagined it to be a sacred artifact. The brown lines that streak across the vase seemed really well done in an era where technology was significantly absent.

These were only a few artifacts I decided to highlight, and even the fewer of artifacts that exist in the Met. It’s certainly an impressive museum; it houses so many exhibitions that if I were to go through them in one day, I’d probably have my mind blown.

 

All in all, this was a wonderful detour of a trip!