A friend and I went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’ve been to this museum back in May with my class because we were working on creating geometric patterns. Because we were only looking at geometric patterns in islamic art, we didn’t get the chance to look at the sculptures and other artworks displayed here. I wasn’t interested in looking at anything either. Coming back here, i had a completely different experience. Since we were taught in art history class how to analyze artworks, i found myself doing exactly that and reading the description on the sides as well. There were arts from all around the world. We looked at nineteenth century European paintings and sculptures, Greek and Roman art, rooms from the Hôtel de Varengeville, Paris, arms and armor, nineteenth and twentieth century art from Robert Lehman collection, and arts of Africa. There was one sculpture that stood out to me because it was sculpted in a way that was different from other sculptures. It was just a sculpture of a man’s head and shown as if he was sleeping. I learned from the description that this was called the funerary portrait of Jacques Damala and that his wife, Sarah Bernhardt, carved this haunting memorial to him shortly after he died from a drug overdose. She envisioned him as if on his deathbed, his youthful features captured in sleep. Parts of the museum I was really interested in were the rooms from Hôtel de Varengeville. Although it was quite dark in there, all the rooms were beautifully furnished. Overall, I enjoyed my visit and I would definitely come back to explore the rest of this museum!
