Located on Fifth Avenue, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has always been one of my favorite and most frequently visited art museums. Ever since I was a child, art has been my outlet and my escape. Museums always gave me inspiration and also tested my amazing ability to get lost. Although the Met is a familiar place, I learn something new each time I went, and always leave with a calm and content feeling.
Usually, I’m a visitor of the Greek sculptures and the abstract art, but this time on September 25th, I observed the European art from 1250-1800. Since I never really looked too much into art from this time period, I didn’t have many expectations other than paintings of Jesus Christ and maybe some landscape art. After getting lost trying to find the correct gallery, I turned out to be correct about paintings of Jesus Christ and landscape art. However, because I had seen some of these paintings in my Art History class, I wasn’t completely lost.
Because many of the paintings were related to each other in terms of theme and structure, my experience was enhanced by my previous knowledge. Even though most of the paintings were of Christ, they each were different, representing him anywhere from childhood to adulthood, and portrayed him in different ways. Some paintings depicted him in a stiff way, with a hard to read facial expression, whereas a few others showed him in the arms of Virgin Mary as a baby, playing and having fun on her lap. The artists also used elements of light, shadow, contrast, and pyramidal structure to illustrate how they viewed holy figures and were also influenced by the historical events in that time period as well as the popular style.
By stepping out of my usual routine and my comfort zone, I gained a new experience while learning to appreciate different kinds of art, not just the ones I’m used to and already admire.
