The American Museum of Natural History in NY, NY

September 17, 2014 Comments Off read Attractions, New York, Northeast, Travel, USA

One could easily spend an entire day seeing everything there is to see in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (or longer, hence their overnight visits!), which is why, of course, we only spent about two hours there and bemoaned the fact that we couldn’t see more. Since my energy levels were low due to the plague, I had to carefully choose which things were most important for me to see, and thus we had visited The Cloisters earlier in the day which didn’t leave much time for AMNH. But I’d rather see part of a museum than none of it!

Since we knew right off the bat we wouldn’t be able to see everything, we narrowed it down to the halls that would have the least overlap with museum visits we’d done recently: The Hall of Biodiversity, The Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life, The Hall of North American Forests, the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites, the Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals. We also took a peek at the Gardner D. Stout Hall of Asian Peoples on our way out, and passed through the Akeley Hall of African Mammals on our way in. Mainly, we skipped out on fossils and the center for Earth and Space even though planetariums and dinosaurs are my jam.

The Hall of Biodiversity was insanely awesome. It features more than 1,500 specimens and models, showcasing both the diversity of life on Earth and the threats to that life, including a timeline of the five previous mass extinctions. More than any museum exhibit I’ve ever seen, it serves as a call to action to guests to do what they can to preserve the variety of life teeming around them as each creature plays a important role.

The Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life features, in addition to a 10.5 ton model of a blue whale suspended from the ceiling from a relatively small anchor point, some of the diversity of life in the sea, from the shores to the deep oceans. The quality of these displays are top-notch: if you can close your ears to the people around you, it’s almost like you’re underwater with these creatures. They also feature a squid vs whale sea battle, though it’s far from being the largest in the world.

The Life of the Forest Floor exhibit shows how terrifying it would be to be insect size. “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” doesn’t even begin to touch on the nightmare world beneath our feet. I don’t even like centipedes at centipede size. Centipedes the size of a horse? Kill me now.

Up until The Hall of Meteorites, I was really impressed with the attention to detail and the care given to the museum’s subjects: to display them in a way that’s interesting and relevant to the modern viewer. However, some of the latter exhibits we visited have begun to show their age, the Earth and Planetary Sciences Halls in particular. The Hall of Meteorites is the only one that appears to have been touched since the 1970s; everything else has a display quality on par with the mineral exhibit we saw in some guy’s backyard near House on the Rock. Stained carpet everywhere, dusty exhibits, exhibits falling apart that haven’t been tended to, and a “wet paint” sign for paint that’s so old that the wall has since been scraped and chipped again. I know that minerals aren’t the most exciting subject, but there’s got to be a better way to display them than ringed in carpet.

Overall, we enjoyed our visit to AMNH, and I think it would definitely warrant a repeat visit should we find ourselves in New York again. I just hope that some of our admission fee was earmarked toward updating some of the lesser-loved exhibits so that the museum can be truly distinguished in every way.

The Cloisters Museum of Art in NYC

September 12, 2014 Comments Off read New York, Northeast, Travel, USA

One of my top priorities in New York was to visit The Cloisters Museum & Gardens: the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated solely to their extensive collection of medieval art and architecture. Instead of creating a copy of one specific building, The Cloisters combines religious and secular architecture in chronological order throughout the building. This makes each room a beautiful complement to the art as well as an immersive experience; it’s rare to see period art in context with its surroundings. Medieval art tends toward the highly religious, and while I’m not generally entranced with the subject matter, the craftsmanship is undeniable, and visiting The Cloisters was a unique opportunity that I refused to miss.

Fuentiduena Chapel

Lion relief tramples a dragon

Saint-Guilhem Cloister

Romanesque Hall

Langon Chapel

Door with ironwork

Pontaut Chapter House

Monks from the Cistercian abbey at Pontaut in Aquitaine once gathered for daily meetings in this twelfth-century enclosure known as a chapter house. At the time of its purchase in the 1930s by a Parisian dealer, the column supports were being used to tether farm animals.

Cuxa Cloister & Garden

Both medieval and modern species of plants are grown in the garden, the pink stone of which was quarried in the twelfth century for the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa.

Early Gothic Hall

The title of this piece of artwork kills me: “Head, perhaps of an Angel”. It reminds me of nothing so much as the conclusions that the Ghost Adventures bros leap to. You could just call it “Head”? Or stick to your convictions and call it “Angel Head”?

Gothic Chapel

The Gothic Chapel contains stained glass windows from fourteenth century Austria and carved images from royal and noble tombs of Spain and France.

Glass Gallery

Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy bong

A water vessel of a dragon eating a man or a man escaping from a dragon’s mouth.

Unicorn water vessel

Selection of fanciful water vessels

Seasonal Cafe in Trie Cloister

Jason, refreshed after drinking a $6 bottle of medieval Sprite. My $6 medieval water was just ok.

Treasury

A room that illustrates the wealth of medieval churches, containing precious objects wrought in gold, silver, ivory, and silk.

In days of old when knights were bold, bishops dressed like wizards.

This chalice is legit. Even crappy booze would seem fancy when sipped out of this thing, which after you paid for it, would be the only type of booze you could afford.

Illuminated bible

15th century illuminated playing cards

This must be Jamie Lannister’s lesser-used gold hand reserved for fun times.

Quatrefoil roundel with arms and secular scenes

Bishop saint and female saint wrought in silver. I feel that it’s a missed opportunity to not have had reproductions in the gift shop as salt and pepper shakers.

Boppard Room

Stained glass from the fifteenth century Carmelite convent

Merode RoomEven the wood beams on the ceilings in the Merode Room were works of art!

Late Gothic Hall

The archangel Michael defeats the antichrist. Possibly the inspiration for the “bitchin tattoo” an ex of mine expressed a desire to acquire. Frankly, this depiction of the antichrist only raises more questions for me, like, what the eff does he do with all of those mouths and why is he helping Michael to jab him through the uppermost mouth and if he has mouths all over and salamander arms and chicken feet, why are Christians worried that he walks among us unseen? He’s not exactly Waldo, I’m pretty sure I could pick him out of a crowd with no trouble.

Nine Heroes Tapestries Room

From a series of nine hangings created around 1400 for a member of the Valois court; they are among the earliest sets of surviving medieval tapestries.

Unicorn Tapestries Room

The Cloisters wouldn’t be what it is without the contributions of John D Rockefeller Jr–not only did he donate the land for the site of the museum, but he also donated a significant amount of land around the museum to preserve the view of the Hudson river, as well as donating works of art from his own collection, including the Unicorn Tapestries. In truth, the Unicorn Tapestries were the main impetus behind my visit. I’ve always had it bad for unicorns, and I recall first encountering the Unicorn Tapestries in an enormous book in the library filled with unicorn art throughout history. The book was incredible…and I never saw it in the library again, nor have been able to find its like. It was then that I realized that the introduction to The Last Unicorn cribbed heavily from the Unicorn Tapestries. Well, one of them, anyway.

Their origin and symbolism remain a mystery. The initials found in several of the tapestries point to two different potential owners/commissioners, as well as signs that they may be part of two separate sets. If not, there’s debate as to whether they were woven in Brussels or the Netherlands and as to whether their meaning is religious or secular. My uneducated belief is secular, if only because by this point in the museum, it was clear that people weren’t exactly afraid of putting Jesus on everything so there wasn’t exactly a need to couch it in hunt symbolism.

We didn’t enter the Unicorn Tapestries room until close to the end of our visit, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s the closest thing to a religious experience I’ve ever had. Here is this artwork that I’ve seen small, lesser versions of for over twenty five years, in person, large as life. Much larger than I’d imagined. Vivid, astoundingly detailed. Lush. I almost cried at their beauty.

Nothing compares with seeing them in person, but the Met has high quality scans so you can see more of the detail. They did offer Unicorn in Captivity tapestry decorative pillows in the gift shop, but they were pale shadows compared to the original, which is a shame. If they were even somewhat close to the beauty of the tapestries themselves, I’d have flung money at them for the opportunity to have a reminder in my home of how I felt standing in the Cloisters.

The 7th, 2nd, and 3rd Unicorn Tapestries (l-r)

The 4th, 5th, and 6th Unicorn Tapestries (l-r)

The 2nd tapestry, The Unicorn is Found. Also known as The Unicorn at the Fountain.

Jason attempted to point out these bunny butts on the second tapestry to me, and apparently his finger crossed some sort of laser beam line because all of a sudden a siren was going off and a guard was furiously motioning at us to stay away from the tapestries. He didn’t touch anything! That bun is an instigator. Troublemaker. Tattler.

Detail of the 3rd tapestry, The Unicorn is Attacked or The Unicorn Leaps the Stream

The fireplace to end all fireplaces in the Unicorn Tapestries room!

Detail of the 4th tapestry, The Unicorn Defends Itself

Fragments of the 5th tapestry, The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn

Detail of the 6th tapestry, The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle

Detail of the 7th tapestry, The Unicorn in Captivity

NY State Museum in Albany

September 8, 2014 Comments Off read Attractions, New York, Northeast, Travel, USA

I want to get my hands on a reproduction copy of Icones animalum now.

I wanted to take a picture in front of this giant drawing of old-timey NY and then make it look like I was part of it, but then felt deep embarrassment over taking a selfie in a museum so I didn’t line it up properly and this is what we ended up with. I feel like I’m in the “Take On Me” video.

“Anti-Fertility Symbol” by Megan Cavanaugh. This would have been a delightful addition to my “Never Gonna Have a Baby” shower.

Albany’s Cultural Education building is jam-packed with public services: the NY State Archives, the NY State Library (one of the largest libraries in the world!), and the NY State Museum. I only had time to check out the NY State Museum, and even that was very limited as I needed to hoof it back to the hotel and make myself a presentable wedding guest, so I was only able to see one of their (enormous) floors. I was able to learn a bit about the history of New York City as well as some of the history of Albany and New York State, see some of the creatures of the nearby Adirondack mountains, check out their impressive mineral collection, and see the “Best of SUNY” art exhibit. My only complaint is that it’s not laid out very well. Things seem to be jammed in where there’s physical space instead of where they belong: natural history is mixed in with urban history, their 9/11 stuff is split between the NYC area and the Adirondack Wilderness area, and it makes the museum even more difficult to navigate when it’s already a labyrinth. I’d also like for monitors placed so there’s easy access of information without obscuring the exhibit itself, but that’s just nitpicking. It’s free (donations accepted and recommended — at $5 per person, it’s still a bargain) and definitely worth checking out if you’re in Albany, but not necessarily worth going out of your way to visit.