Metropolitan Museum off Art

The Metropolitan Museum off Art of New York, often shortened “ the Met ”, is one of the largest museums of art in the world, opened with the public since February 20th, 1872. Located at Manhattan, at the end is of Central Park, it also includes/understands another building, “ The Cloisters ” (the Cloister S), at the northern end of the island, in Strong Tryon Park (district of Washington Heights). This appendix presents works of medieval Art and reconstitutions of European cloisters. The collections of the Met count more than two million works of art coming from the whole world and representing a range of very diverse objects. The first parts were brought by the founders then gifts and legacies of large collectors as well as the various policies of acquisition followed by the successive directors. The visitors can thus admire treasures of the Antiquité, such as those exposed in its Greek galleries and Cypriot, while passing by fabrics and sculptures of all the large European Masters , to a broad collection of American art . The collections are also made up of Egyptian works , African, Asian, Oceania, means-Eastern, Byzantine and Islamic.

An encyclopedic collection of Musical instruments of the whole world can also be admired as well as a series of interiors, like a Roman room of the first century before Jesus-Christ or a part drawn by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It is also necessary to mention its collection of Arme S and armor S antiques of Europe, but also of the Japan, the United States and the Middle East.

History

The idea of the creation of the museum goes up with 1870, date on which several American personalities, resulting from the artistic medium, but also from the medium of the businesses decide to create a museum to bring art to the American citizens. The first collections are presented during this same year, with three collections deprived coming from Europe, for a total of 174 paintings, with in particular of works of Nicolas Poussin, Giambattista Tiepolo or Francesco Guardi.

Metropolitan Museum off Art opens its doors on February 20th, 1872, in the dancing school of Dodsworth, a building located at the 681 of the Fifth Avenue in New York. John Taylor Johnston, leader of a railway company whose personal collection represents the core of the new museum, is its first president and the editor George Palmer Putnam joined it as an administrator. Under their direction, the goods of the Met, which consisted initially of a Roman sarcophagus out of stone and the collection of 174 mainly European fabrics, increase until filling all space available. In 1873, following the purchase by the Met of the collection of Cypriot antiquities of Luigi Cesnola, the museum leaves the Fifth Avenue to be installed in Douglas Mansion on the 14th Western Street.

However, thanks to a negotiation with the municipality of New York, these buildings are only temporary. The Met indeed makes the acquisition of one ground in the east of Central Park, where it builds a mausoleum neogothic red brick, drawn by the American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould. The Met since remained at this place and the original structure always forms part of the current building. Many extensions will be built with the wire of time, like the frontage Art schools, drawn by Richard Morris Hunt. This frontage, started in 1912 and supplemented in 1926, is built out of gray limestone of the Indiana. The southern wing is undertaken in 1911, the northern wing in 1913: they are the work of the cabinet of architects McKim, Mead and White. In 1963, to the instigation of Andre Malraux, the museum exposes the Mona Lisa which receives the visit of tens of thousands of people.

In 1971, a new architectural plan of the museum is approved and entrusted to the office of architects Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates , its realization will extend over one twenty years period. Its goal is to make the collections of the museum more accessible to the public, more practices for the researchers and overall more interesting and didactic for the unit of the visitors.

Among the additions of this new plan, one can quote the Robert Lehman Wing (“ wing Robert Lehman ”), completed in 1975, which shelters the collection of the large Masters of European painting, of the impressionist and post-impressionists; the installation in the Sackler Wing of the Temple of Dendour in 1978; the American Wing , open in 1980 which includes/understands 24 rooms and offers a complete sight of the history of art and American daily life; the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing which presents, as of 1982, collections African, océanienne and those of Americas; the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing which shelters the collections of Modern art opens in 1987 and finally in 1991, the Henry R. Kravis Wing intended for the European sculpture and the decorative Arts of the Renaissance at the beginning of the 20th century.

These new completed constructions, the Met polishes and reorganizes the collections inside new spaces. In June 1998, the gallery of Korean arts is opened with the public, thus supplementing the continuation of the galleries dedicated to Asian arts. In 1999, is completed the restoration of the galleries of close relation-Eastern antiquities and that of Greek and Roman antiquities begins. The Robert and Renee Belfer Short , presenting the art of ancient Greece opens in June 1996; the New Greek Galleries are inaugurated in April 1999 and the Cypriot galleries in 2000.

In 2006, the Met makes almost four hundred meters length and occupies a surface of more than: 180000 m ², more than twenty times size of its first buildings of 1880.

Directors

So far (2007), eight directors governed the destinies of the museum, the first of them, named in 1879, was American general, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, Italian of origin. Its current director, named in 1977, is Philippe de Montebello, of French origin and which was previously director of the Musée of the fine arts of Houston.

Cesnola

Luigi Palma di Cesnola (1832-1904) was the first director of the Met, of 1879 with 1904. Soldier of origin Italy, it served the Austria at the time of the Crimean War before emigrating in the United States in 1860. He founded a school of officers in New York then was used as colonel as cavalry of the Union at the time of the American Civil War where its feats of arms were worth to him the Medal off Honor (highest military distinction of the United States). Its career in the army was completed in 1865, it was then general. Appointed consul of the United States with Cyprus, it was impassioned for archeology and carried out excavations, during which it discovered very many parts more (: 30000). The collection was bought by the Met, whose Palma di Cesnola became the first director in 1879. Its nomination was besides the object of a polemic, number of historians judging its excavations in Cyprus like plundering.

Clarke

The British Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke (1846-1911) was the second director of the Met between 1904 and 1910. He had initially entered to the South Kensington Museum of London (renamed Victoria and Albert Museum) in 1867, of which he took the direction in 1896. Clarke resigned in 1910 for health reasons and went back to London.

Robinson

From 1910 with 1931, the Met passed under the direction of Edward Robinson (1858-1931). This Archeologist, specialist in ancient Greece, was preserving (in 1885) then directing (in 1902) of the Boston Museum off Fine Arts. It joined the Met like conservative and assistant editor, then as director in 1910 during more than twenty years.

Winlock

Of 1932 with 1939, Herbert Winlock (1884-1950), a famous Egyptologist, made all its career with the Met before directing it. Many Egyptian works of art of the museum come from its archaeological excavations, in particular those which it carried out in the area of Thèbes.

Taylor

Of 1940 with 1955, the Met was directed by Francis Henry Taylor (1903-1957). This one off began its career like conservative of the Philadelphia Museum Art, then directing of the Worcester Art Museum of the Massachusetts, before joining the Met as director. He developed his idea that a museum was not a simple deposit of works of art, but well an institution or a public service. Thanks to its action, it succeeds in doubling the frequentation of the museum during her career: the number of visitors reached the figure of 2,3 million per annum.

Rorimer

James J. Rorimer (1905-1966) directed the museum of 1955 until its death on May 11th, 1966. It devoted all its existence to it. As of the end of its studies in 1927, it joined the Met as assistant of the department of decorative arts, then like conservative of medieval arts as of 1934. A short interruption to serve its country, in 1943, at the time of the Second world war, where the army used its competences for the safeguarding of the cultural goods and the research of the works of art flights by the Nazi S. It returned to the Met in 1949 as director of the Cloisters, until its nomination in 1955 as director of the museum.

Hoving

March 17th, 1967, it is Thomas Hoving (born in 1931) which succeeded Rorimer. After its Doctorate obtained with the University Princeton in 1959, Hoving worked at the department of medieval arts of the Met, of which he became the conservative in 1965. It left then the Met, in 1966, to enter the team of the mayor of New York John V. Lindsay. However, after the brutal disappearance of Rorimer, it turned over to the Met, but as director this time. It of course contributed to increase the collections of the museum, but also the museum itself by extensions and restorations. It inserted the museum in the mass culture, with the creation of great exposures “blockbusters”, intended to attract the maximum of people. It is as in years 1970 as the MET obtains with bookstores, restaurants and coffees. He resigned on June 30th, 1977 to found a company of consulting for the museums.

of Montebello

Since 1977, the director of the Met is Philippe de Montebello (born in 1936). This French born with Paris, descendant of Jean Lannes duke of Montebello, followed its family to the United States in 1951 where they were naturalized American in 1955. He attended the French Lycée of New York where he obtained his Baccalauréat in 1958. Montebello studied then the history of art with Harvard then prepared a doctorate with the Institut of the Art schools of the Université of New York; but in 1963, it stopped its research to join the Met as preserving assistant of the department of European paintings. In 1969, it was named director of the Musée of the fine arts of Houston, station which it occupied until in 1974. It turned over then to the Met as vice-director, then was named director in 1977. Under its direction, the museum doubled its surface, the European galleries of the 19th century were reorganized in-depth, of the high galleries were created in order to emphasize monumental fabrics like those of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. He nevertheless was criticized for his conservatism with respect to the modern art and contemporary.

Operation

The whole of the museum extends on approximately: 180000 m ² and the collections are distributed on 280 rooms and four levels. Metropolitan Museum off Art employs approximately: 1800 paid full-time and 900 voluntary. Although the museum does not perceive any federal help, the town of New York takes responsibility for however its operating expenses of the establishment (like the heating, lighting and safety). In 2006, its deficit reaching the three million $, the Met was constrained to increase its recommendation of finance of admission which passes from 15 to 20 $, by thus doing one of the most expensive museums of the world. It should however be noted that it is about a recommendation and that any visitor can enter to the Met by pouring only some piécettes or free. The majority of the other receipts of the museum come from the private sector (85 % in 1994), of which a part is poured by foundation S. the investments in purse, called endowment , reach 1,7 billion dollar bring back each year several million dollars of interests spent by the museum. The operational budget of the Met is of 160 million dollars. The members of clubs of benefactors have privileges in exchange of their contribution: in 1994, there was close to: 100000 members. Receptions are organized by the museum, in particular in a dining room which gives on Central Park. The product sales derived (counterparts of works, jewels, postcards, tee-shirts) in the shop from the museum or by correspondence, are another source of revenue. Moreover, the museum organizes more than thirty temporary exhibitions each year. Part of the budget is used to make new acquisitions. Lastly, the museum lends each year close to: 5000 works with other museums.

Today, the establishment diversified its activities so much so that some denounce the marchandisation of the place: five bookstores are in the enclosure of the Met. The museum also proposes organized voyages sets of themes and rents its rooms for receptions. Although in the past, the Met already sold objects in double or minors of its collections to finance the acquisition of new parts, the new policy wanted to be more aggressive and broader than before. It allowed the sale of works from which the value would in the past have excluded their marketing. This new policy caused many criticisms (in particular on behalf of the NewYork Times ). However it bore its fruits; many objects acquired thanks to the bottom generated by these sales are regarded today showpieces of the collections of the Met, as the Juan de Pareja of Velasquez and the crater of Euphronios representing the death of Sarpedon. The policy installation by the Met was at that time pursued by other museums. The Met continued this policy until our days, selling parts as prestigious as the photography of 1904, The Lays-Moonlight (of which the museum has another copy), of Edward Steichen for 2,9 million $.

Permanent collections

The permanent collections of the Met exposed and are managed by nineteen independent departments, each one of them including/understanding a preserving team of specialized, restorers and researchers.

American decorative arts

The department of American decorative Arts includes/understands more: 12000 examples of works of decorative Arts American, covering one period going of the end of the 17th century at the beginning of the 20th century. Although the Met received, in 1909, its first collection of American decorative Arts thanks to a donation of Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, woman of the financier Russell Sage, the department was created only in 1934. One of the jewels of the department is its collection of Vitraux which is undoubtedly more limportante world, including/understanding several parts of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The department is also famous for its twenty-five rooms presenting each one a furnished part, supplements, by time or creator. One finds also a collection notable of Argenterie exhibitor of many parts of Paul Revere or Tiffany & Co..

Painting and American sculpture

Since its foundation, Metropolitan Museum off Art put a point of honor to collect American works. The first part entered to the Met was an allegorical sculpture of Hiram Powers entitled California , acquired in 1870, which is always visible today in the galleries of the museum.

During following decades, the collection of paintings and sculptures American increase until including/understanding: 1000 fabrics, 600 sculptures and: 2600 drawings, covering all the times, of the colonial surface until the beginning of the twentieth century. Number of the most famous paintings of the United States belong to its collection, like the portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, monumental the Washington Crossing the Delaware of Emanuel Leutze, or the masterpieces of Winslow Homer, George Caleb Bingham, John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler and Thomas Eakins.

Nowadays, the collection of American art rests on two academies, that of American decorative arts, created in 1934, and that of paintings and American sculptures which was born later fourteen years. Both are sheltered in the American Wing (American wing), which opened in 1924. The wing was increased in a substantial way in 1980 to incorporate in it the permanent galleries of paintings and American sculptures, the Joan Whitney Payson Galleries , then in 1988 by the construction of the Henry R. Luce Center for the study of American art.

Antiquities of the Middle East

It is towards the end of the Années 1800 that the Met undertakes the acquisition of objets d'art ancient of the the Middle East. From some shelves of Wedge-shaped writing and some Seal X, the collection of the museum extended and includes/understands from now on objects dating from the beginning of the Neolithic until the Arab conquest of the empire of Sassanides in 651. One finds there works Sumer iennes, Hittites, Sassanides, Assyrie, Babylonian and élamite S (among others), as well as a single collection of objects of the Bronze Age.

In October 1999, the galleries of antiquities of the Middle East were réouvertes after eighteen months of renovation works and replanning of the exposure thanks to the support of the bottom Hagop Kevorkian . The galleries are organized chronologically and geographically, the objects are placed there in a context which clarifies their significance in Antiquity like their connections with art of the close cultures. The central point of the new construction is the Assyrian art gallery, Raymond and Beverly Sackler , which recreates a courtroom of the palate of the North-West of the Assyrian king Assurnazirpal {{II}} with Kalkhu (located nowadays in Iraq). Monumental the Lammasu , or stone guard of the palate is undoubtedly the point of organ of the collection.

Weapons and armours

The department of the weapons and armours is one of the most popular collections of the museum. The “ parade ” of the armours with horse exposed on the first floor of the gallery is one of the most known images of the Met. The department concentrates on the models of pageantry, jewels of technical skill and finely engraved works, the European Early middle ages and parts Japan eases of. However, they are not the only cultures represented, the collection offers also parts of other times and areas, like that of the Period thinite in Egypt, of the ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the ancient period in the Middle East, the Africa, the Oceania and the Americas. Among this collection of: 15000 objects, one counts parts having belonged to kings and princes like Henri {{II}} of France and Ferdinand {{Ier}} of the Holy roman Empire.

The Met received its first specimens of weapons and armours in 1881. Thanks to an important batch coming from Japan and a European major collection, both bought in 1904, the collection of the museum acquired an international reputation soon. What led to the establishment of a department separated in 1912.

The galleries also expose American weapons energy of the colonial era until the end of the 19th century, the weapons of various Islamic cultures, including/understanding a very beautiful series of armours of and 16th century of Iran and Anatolia, as of invaluable stone the crimped weapons of the Othoman course of the empires and moghol.

Arts of Africa, Oceania and Americas

Although the Met acquired a batch of Peruvian antiquities in 1882, he does not undertake a systematic collection of works African, océaniennes and American that in 1969, when the Businessman and Philanthrope Nelson Rockefeller makes him gift of: 3000 parts of its collection.

Today, the museum is rich of more than: 11000 works of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands and Americas which it exposes on close to: 4000 m ² in the Rockefeller wing, located at its southern end. The collections are spread over one period of: 40000 years, of which paintings indigenous, a group of funerary posts five height meters carved, carried out by the Asmat S of New Guinea, but also of the rare objects of the court of the Benign . The range of objects presented in this department is one of vastest museum and includes objects carried out starting from different materials, of the most invaluable metal to spines of Porc-épic.

The African collection covers the vast geographical extent of sub-Saharan Africa. Works include/understand very beautiful ivories afro-Portugueses of the 15th century, but also of the statuettes Fangs which influenced artists of the 20th century like Jacob Epstein and André Derain. Whereas wood is the principal means of expression of these artists, one can also admire objects out of stone, terra cotta, gold, silver and ivory as well as textiles and assemblies of pearls.

The collection of the Americas antiques is mainly Mexican and Peruvian, covering one period of: 3500 years, since 2000 before our era until the arrival of Europeans at the end of the 15th century. Among these précolombiens objects, one finds as well ceramics Olmèques thousand-year-old Ier front J. - C. as of the earrings in mosaics of colors, people ugly of Peru (more recent of a thousand of years) or than a West-Indian statue out of wooden of the 15th century. The Jan Mitchell Treasury of art précolombien out of gold, which was open in the South American gallery in 1993, shelters one of the most complete exposures to the world as regards American objects out of gold. The other materials present in the collection include/understand the stone, jade, the textiles and of works in feathers of birds.

Asian arts

The Asia department of the Met is equipped with a very rich collection which goes up with the foundation even museum: number of the philanthropists who equipped it had Asian works. Nowadays, it is a whole wing which is devoted to them, it includes/understands more: 60000 parts and covers: 4000 years of history. Each Asian civilization is represented there and exposed works relate to each artistic field, of painting to printing works, while passing by the sculpture or the work of metals. The department is famous for its collection of penmanships and Chinese paintings, like for its works Nepal eases and Tibetans. In fact only ritual objets d'art or are exposed there, but also objects of the daily newspaper. One also finds there a garden of the Dynastie Ming, on the model of that of the Maître of the nets of Suzhou.

The department was established in 1915 under the name of department of art of the Far East, then its name was changed into 1986 in department of Asian arts. The real impulse, to create an important collection of Asian arts, came from Douglas Dillon which was named chairman of the board of the museum in 1970. For this year, which coincided with the centenary of the museum, the department has begun on the way of the expansion of its personnel, his collection and its surface of exposure while following a very ambitious plan. This process culminated in 1998 with the completion of a whole wing reserved for Asian arts, occupying a few 5800 m ².

The galleries Charlotte C. Weber, renovated in 1997 and devoted to Chinese antiquities, opened their doors in 1988 in order to expose the collections of bronzes and old jades, ceramics and metalwork of the Neolithic period until the Dynastie Tang.

The institute of clothing

In 1946, the Museum off Costume Art (museum of arts of clothing) joined the Met and becomes its department of the institute of clothing. Today, its collection includes/understands more: 80000 clothes and accessories. Because of the fragile nature of these objects, the institute does not present a permanent exposure of its collection. On the other hand, each year it organizes two presentations of its treasures in the galleries of the Met, each one concentrating on a topic or a creator in particular. In the past, the institute introduced large dressmakers like Chanel and Gianni Versace which attracted crowd. The institute organizes each year a great reception for charity, sponsored by the editor association of Vogue , Anna Wintour, which is a true event for the world of the mode. In 2007, the price of the 700 tickets of entry began with: 6500 $.

The Museum off Costume Art was a founded independent entity in 1937. Directed by the founder of Neighborhood Playhouse , Irene Lewisohn, the museum had profited from gifts of Irene and her sister Alice Lewisohn Crowley, as well as decorators of theater Aline Bernstein and Lee Simonson, among others. In 1946, thanks to the financial support of the industry of the mode, the Museum off Costume Art was bought by the Met and in 1959 about it became a department. The famous writer of the world of the mode, Diana Vreeland (1903-1989), was consulting of 1972 until her death in 1989. She carried out a succession of spectacular exposures of which “Le Monde de Balenciaga” (1973), “Hollywood Design” (1974), “the Glory of the Russian Costume” (1976) or “Vanity Fair” (1977) which galvanized the public and made department an international standard.

Drawings and engravings

Although other departments have a big number of Dessin S and Gravure S, this one concentrates on North-American works and of Western Europe produced after the Moyen-âge. Currently, one counts there more: 11000 drawings, 1,5 million engravings and: 12000 pounds illustrated. The collection grew rich considerably since the first legacy by 670 drawings makes by Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) in 1880. The large Masters of European painting, who produced more sketch and drawings that true paintings, there are extremely well represented. The department offers major works of Michel-Angel, Léonard de Vinci and Rembrandt, as well as engravings and etchings of Van Dyck, Dürer and Degas among others.

The department of engravings was established in 1916 and, under the direction of its first conservative, William Mr. Ivins Jr., developed quickly to become an international encyclopedic reference in the field of the printed images. Ivins attracted many donations and legacy with the museum: engravings To last of Junius Spencer Morgan, xylographies and late sketches of Rembrandt of Felix Mr. Warburg and his family, as well as engravings of Rembrandt, van Dyck, Degas and Cassatt of the collection H.O. Havemeyer. The collection continued to increase under the direction of the following conservatives: A. Hyatt Mayor, John McKendry, and Colta Ives. It now also extends at the time contemporary, with works of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and others.

Egyptian antiquities

Although the original equipment of the department of the Egyptian antiquities comes from private collections, the objects discovered at the time of the excavations undertaken by the researchers of the museum, between 1906 and 1941, constitute more half of the current collection. More: 36000 parts of Egyptian art energy of the Roman Paléolithique at the time compose the Egyptian collection of the Met. The majority of them are visible in the immense wing of the museum which shelters forty Egyptian galleries.

Egyptian forwardings comprise fourteen periods of excavations to Licht. The site includes/understands the pyramid of Amenemhat {{Ier}}, which inaugurates a dynasty which will remain one of most prestigious of the Egyptian history, and that of his/her son, the pyramid of Sésostris {{Ier}}. The first excavations are directed by the famous American Egyptologist Albert Mr. Lythgoe, first conservative of the department of Egyptian antiquities, assisted of Ambrose Lansing and Arthur C. Mace. One also finds in Licht a young Egyptologist, Herbert E. Winlock, which begins just its career. At this point in time he worked with Mace in the tomb of Senebtisi that Winlock developed the methodology of archaeological excavations which will make its fame of Egyptologist.

Among the parts of great value of the Egyptian collection, one counts a series of 24 miniatures out of wooden, discovered in the tomb of Méketrê, chancellor of Mentouhotep {{II}} (), with Deir el-Bahari in 1920. They depict with amazing details the Egyptian life at the beginning of the period of the Moyen Empire: boats, gardens and scenes of the life of the every day.

However, the most popular major piece and of the department is without any doubt the Temple of Dendour. This temple was dismantled by the Egyptian government to save it rise of water, during the construction of the stopping of Aswan, then offered to the the United States in 1965. It is reassembled with the Met, in the Sackler wing in 1978. It is in this immense room surrounded by a basin and lit by a gigantic picture window giving on Central Park.

European painting

Metropolitan has one of the most beautiful collections of European painting in the world. Although the collection only counts: 2500 parts, it includes/understands immediately recognizable works. It is in this department that were always made the large one of acquisitions of the museum, concentrating mainly on the large Masters of the European painting of the 19th in particular French, Italian and Dutch century. Many large artists are presented there in an exhaustive way and the Met has for example 37 fabrics of Monet, 21 oils of Cezanne, 18 works of Rembrandt or five paintings of Vermeer.

The other essential components of the collection include/understand the Harvesters Bruegel Old the, the Monologuist of good adventure of Georges of the Tower, the Death of Socrate of Jacques-Louis David and the Autoportrait with the straw hat of Van Gogh.

In 1870, at the time of the foundation of the Met, a campaign harvest of funds was launched with an aim of acquiring works. The following year, the administrators voted a credit of: 116180,27 $ for the acquisition of 174 paintings, the majority Dutchwomen and Flemish of the 17th century. A department of painting was created in 1886 to deal with these paintings and others, engravings and the drawings of the museum, without being concerned with their time nor of their origin. Progressively of the growth of the collection, other departments were formed which dealt with various elements of the collection. In 1950, the collection not counting more that European works, the department was famous consequently. Its conservatives also continued to acquire drawings until a department is devoted there in 1960.

During these last decades, the Met set up a policy of investment withdrawal of its works “ mineures ” in order to be able to acquire “ parts majeures ”. Although this policy is prone to controversy, it allowed the acquisition of masterpieces, to start with the Juan de Pareja of Velázquez in 1971 or, more recently, the Virgin with the Child of Duccio which cost 45 million $ the museum. Painting not making that 23 centimetres out of 15 is however named the “ Mona LISA ” of the Met.

European sculptures and decorative arts

Although European painting has its own department, other decorative arts of this continent are also well represented with the Met. It is about the one of the greatest departments of the museum with more: 50000 parts of. If the collection concentrates mainly on the sculpture of the Rebirth, it also includes/understands pieces of furniture, jewels, glassmakings, ceramics, tapestries, textiles, clock industry and instruments mathematical.

The visitors can also admire parts furnished with various times, reconstituted in the galleries of the Met. The collection includes/understands for example the Patio 16th century of the Spanish castle of Vélez-Blanco; a part of a Swiss castle of the 17th century, or the front of a Parisian shop of the 18th century. The major sculptures of the department include/understand a Bacchanale Bernini, a plaster of the Bourgeois of Calais of Rodin, and some single parts of Houdon, among which the Buste of Voltaire and the famous portrait of his/her Sabine daughter.

The department, created in 1907 under the presidency of John Pierpont Morgan, was then a deposit of works without reference of time or origin. Thirty-five years of acquisitions had already made an important collection of it. Whereas the rate/rhythm of acquisitions increased during the decades, there were several partitions and consolidations around these objects within the department. The definition of the goals of the department was established in 1935 and it is in 1978 that it accepted its current name.

Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities

The collection is made up of more than: 35000 works going up with the Neolithic until conversion with the Christianity of the Roman Emperor Constantin into 312. The collection gréco-Roman goes back to the foundation of the museum. Its first acquisition was a Roman sarcophagus coming from Tarse, gift of 1870, which is always exposed.

Although the collection naturally concentrates on the ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, these historical areas represent a large range of cultures and styles artistic. The objects presented go from the small engraved semi-precious stone to the statue and reflects the whole of the materials on which the artists of then worked: Calcareous Marble, , Terra cotta, Bronze, Gold, Money and Glass, but also the Ivory, the Os, the Iron, the Lead, the Amber and of course the Wood.

One counts works former to the foundation of the empires Greek and Roman, such as for example of the sculptures of the Cyclades or only and single the Char Etruscan dating from the second quarter of the VI E and discovered in a tomb with Montelone. The visitor can also admire great traditional murals or Bas-relief S of various periods, as well as a reconstituted room of noble a villa of Boscoreale, updated after his burial at the time of the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79.

Among the first directors of the museum, one counted several traditional archeologists, like Luigi Palma di Cesnola and Edward Robinson. After 1905, the museum launched out in an increased policy of acquisition in this field, thanks to the Rogers Fund, created in 1901 by a legacy of Jacob S. Rogers, an industrialist of the railroads. Moreover, the right of the division being always in force, it made it possible the museum to divide, with the local museums, the discoveries made on the excavations that it organized around the the Mediterranean, as with Sardes. In spite of these many acquisitions in this field and the important collection which was already in its possession, the museum created the department only in 1909 and he was baptized of his current name only in 1925.

In 2007, the department increased of some: 6000 m ² in order to allow the permanent exposure of the almost totality of the collection.

Art of Islam

The Islamic collection of art is not strictly confined with the religious art, although many exposed objects were created at the origin for the worship or as decorative elements of Mosquée S. One finds there objects secular, including/understanding ceramic and textiles of the world arabo-Moslem, energy of the Spain to the Central Asia, while passing by the North Africa.

The miniatures of Iran and the Empire moghol constitute the essential components of the collection. The Penmanship, as well nun as secular, is well represented there, since the official decrees of Soliman the Magnificent the until many Coran S reflecting various periods and styles of penmanship. One can also admire reconstituted interiors, like the Chambre Nur Al-Din coming from a house of Damas of the 18th century.

The department is in the course of enlarging and will remain closed until 2010. However, some objects are visible thanks to an temporary exhibition located on the southern balcony, overhanging the principal hall. The collection is also visible on Internet site of the museum.

Although some seals and jewels of Moslem countries were acquired as of 1874, like some textiles Turkish in 1879, the Met accepted its first important batch of Islamic objects only in 1891, thanks to a legacy of Edward C. Moore. Since then, the collection increased by gifts, legacies, purchases and by the excavations organized by the museum with Nishapur in Iran, between 1935 and 1939, then in 1947. Until 1932, when the department of art of the Middle East was made up, all these objects were exposed by the department of decorative arts. Towards 1963, the quantity of objects had increased so much so that it was necessary to create a division between the close relation-Eastern and Islamic parts of the collection. In 1975, the art galleries of Islam were moved and completely renovated. Today, close to: 10000 parts are presented on approximately: 4000 m ².

Collection Robert Lehman

After the death of the banker Robert Lehman in 1969, its foundation made gift of: 3000 works with the museum, sheltered today in the wing Robert Lehman. The Met affirms that the collection is “ one of the most extraordinary collections deprived ever assembled in the United States; ”.

To emphasize the personal nature of the Lehman collection, the Met exposes it in galleries evoking the interior richly decorated with the private mansion of Lehman. The creation of a “ museum in the musée ” received critical and approvals at the time, even if the acquisition of the collection by Metropolitan were unanimously greeted. The museum documented this immense collection by a work in several volumes, published under the title of Robert H. Lehman Collection: catalogs off the drawings .

Libraries

The Thomas J. Watson Library , of the name of its founder, is the principal library of the Met. It gathers books of history of art, including/understanding catalogs of sale and exposure, with an aim of emphasizing the permanent collections of the museum. Several departments of the Met have their own specialized library relative to their own fields. The Watson Library and the libraries of the departments also preserve old and important works which are themselves of works of Article Among which one can quote the books Dürer and Athanasius Kircher, as well as the editions of the review Surréaliste VVV and a copy of the Description of Egypt… ordered in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte and regarded as one of the greatest French publications.

Some libraries are opened with the public without go. The Library and Teacher Resource Center, Ruth and Harold Uris Center for Education (Library and resource center for teachers of the Center for education Rut and Harold Uris) is opened to the visitors of all ages eager to study the art and the history of art like better knowing the museum, its exposures and permanent collections. The Robert Goldwater Library of the department of African arts, Oceania and Americas presents documents on these subjects. It is opened to the adult researchers and to the students. The majority of the other libraries are reserved to the personnel of the museum or are not opened with the public that on go.

Medieval art

The collection of medieval art consists of a very broad range of Western objets d'art energy of, as well as Byzantine art and European pre-medieval antiquities not forming part of the collections gréco-Romans. Like the Islamic collection, the medieval collection is made up of secular and religious objects. On the whole, the department counts more: 11000 works.

Because of its width, it is the only collection of the museum to being exposed in two places: the principal building on the Fifth Avenue and The Cloisters . The two sites are managed by the same department.

Principal building

Located on the first floor, the medieval gallery contains approximately: 6000 objects. Although many European parts are exposed there, the greatest part of them are with the museum of the cloisters ( The Cloisters ), in the north of Manhattan. That makes it possible the Met to expose, side by side, of the parts of Byzantine art European and . The principal gallery shelters many tapestries and religious and funerary statues, whereas the secondary galleries present smaller works out of noble metals and ivory, including Reliquaire S and objects secular. The principal gallery with its high arched ceiling has also another use: it is the site of the traditional Christmas tree of the Met.

The Cloisters

Modern art

Although the Museum off Modern Art is regarded as the New Yorkean temple of the Modern art, the Met has a substantial department in this field. With more: 10000 works, mainly of European and American artists, the collection occupies close to: 6000 m ² and present many icons of the modern art. The angular stones of the collection include/understand the portrait of Gertrude Stein by Picasso (1906), the white Drapeau of Jasper Johns (1955), the Fall Rhythm (Number 30) of Jackson Pollock of 1950, and the Triptyque Beginning of max Beckmann (1949). Certain artists are represented in an extensive way, for a museum not being devoted only to the modern art. One will quote for example forty paintings of Paul Klee, recalling the whole of his career. Because of the long story of the Met, the contemporary paintings acquired during these last years often migrated in other collections of the museum, in particular in the departments of American and European painting.

Musical instruments

With close to: 5000 musical instruments coming from the whole world, the collection of the Met is practically single among the largest museums. The collection begins in 1889 by the donation from several hundreds from instruments by Lucy W. Drexel, but in fact especially the donations of Mary Elizabeth Adams, woman of John Crosby Brown gave a significant impulse to the department. The instruments were (and continue to be) built-in with the collection, not only on the basis of criteria esthetic, but also from their technical sides and social in the cultures in which they are originating. The collection is encyclopedic from its extent: each continent is indeed represented there, at almost each time of its musical history. The jewels of the department include/understand several Violon S of Antonio Stradivari, a collection of Asian instruments made in noble metals and oldest Piano in the still visible world (a model of 1720 of Bartolomeo Cristofori). Many instruments of the collection can always be played and the department encourages it by organizing concerts and demonstrations by invited musicians.

Photographs

Rich person of some: 20000 works, the collection of Photographie S of the Met is made up of five major collections and new acquisitions of the museum. Alfred Stieglitz, famous photographer himself, made gift of the first important collection of the museum, which included/understood a complete study of works pictorialists, a rich person series of pullings of Edward Steichen, and a remarkable collection of photographs coming from the proper studio of Stieglitz.

The Met supplemented the gift of Stieglitz by: 8500 parts coming from the Gilman Paper Company Collection, Rubel Collection, and Ford Motor Company Collection, which respectively enriched the collection by works by the pioneers of French and American photography, British and American and European photographs posterior with the First World War. The museum made also the acquisition of the personal collection of Walker Evans, a blow particularly successful, considering the request for its work.

Although the department obtained a permanent gallery in 1997, all its works are not permanently exposed, because of the delicate nature of the photographs. However, it set up some of the temporary exhibitions best accommodated Met, like the retrospective Diane Arbus or the exposure Edouard Baldus for example.

Selection of paintings exposed to the MET

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