I recently visited the Met museum in Manhattan, I have not so much of a museum type of person but it was needed for my art history class. I went alone, which wasn’t a good idea, I did not stop to think how big the met really was. I grabbed the map and attempted to visit each section. The assignment for art history was to find a work of art that grasped my attention, sit down and sketch it then construct a paper at home explaining the image to someone. This was much harder than it seemed, after walking through countless exhibitions, I did not feel any sort of connection with any of the images. Finally, I entered the sculptures section and there was this one piece right in the center, as soon as I saw it a million questions came to mind. I wanted to know what was going on, why the people in the sculpture looked the way they did. I walked around the sculpture analyzing the details and decided to chose this sculpture for my assignment. The sculpture was called Ugolino and His Sons by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, it included 5 male figures, each in a different posture with different facial expressions. The description under the sculpture told the story of a father, his sons and grandsons locked away in a tower. From the sculpture it was easy to tell that they were not in good conditions, their flesh appeared to be disappearing and their bones were visible. I never thought a work of art could have caught my eyes as much as this sculpture did. This activity forced me to go to something I wouldn’t ever picture myself going to, especially alone. I was able to engage more with art while actually enjoying myself at the museum.
