The Metropolitan Museum of Art is opening a new Renaissance exhibit this coming Wednesday. It will hold 160 different pieces and promises to be quite unique. Keith Christiansen, chairman of European paintings at the Met, says that one of the most unique things about this exhibit will be the sculptures, which will be placed in the center of the room as oppose to against the wall so that viewers can get a good look at the very fine details from every angle. Many of the details in the sculptures have gone unnoticed for centuries.
Mr. 
Christiansen also said that “the 15th century is the first great century of portraits”. Before this time period, it was only aristocrats or royalty who had them, and most were made for tombs. (This could very well be where Frans Haals got the idea to start painting for the upper-middle class.) Mr. Christiansen also said that these portraits experiment with “portraiture, and the age-old notion of identity. This is the foundation on which European portraiture is based.” Paintings and sculptures from masters like Donatello, Filipo, Lippi, Boticelli, Mantegna, and Bellini will be displayed, among other artists.
Our class this year has talked about the relationship between society and the arts. It seems that this exhibit at the Met will do a similar thing. They will try to give the viewers a functional understanding of not only 15th Century European Renaissance art, but also an understanding of European society and culture through paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts from that time period. Together, it can possibly tell a good deal more about European Renaissance history than a standard textbook. And it’s a lot more interactive.
A link to the article about the exhibit can be found here.
As a class we’ve already been to the various exhibits at the Met. Thus far, one of my favorite landmarks is the grand gate at the Medieval Art and The Cloisters section.
http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/medieval-art-and-the-cloisters
From history class we already know the Middle Ages and byzantine empire preceded the Renaissance. Thus, It will be a good experience for future museum goers to look at the two exhibits (Medieval and Renaissance) side by side. This new display will allow us to consider the shift and transformation of artistic styles between these too time periods. For instance, we should be able to see the birth of distinct techniques such as realism and perspective. At this time, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci were busy flirting with light, shadow, and human anatomy in their works. This should be a promising event.
There has always been a great display of the Renaissance and the medieval times at the Met. It was in the seventh grade that I first started going to the Met to observe the different eras of art. It was always a great finding to see the differences in the paintings from the middle ages and then the renaissance. When I read this article in the New York times it had me thinking about my early expeditions to the Met. I realize now how much I have developed since then and how much more I understand of the art. Its the same paintings and same settings, but they speak to me in a very different way than they did when I was younger. This revelation then made me think how lucky I am to have revisited these works as an older teenager now because a couple of years from now when I come back to these art forms I will know or at least I hope I will understand them in an even greater depth than I do now.
Scaling my development alongside art. It’s one way to gauge new beginnings. I can’t wait to see the new addition to the Met.