The Met Part 1 (Veteran)

Like your favorite movie, the Met will always give you something new no many times you have been there. Now I have only been there four of five times before today, so I am no expert myself, but I have seen a majority of the work. For me, this trip was the moment where the initial impact of the work has worn off and I started to see more of the paintings from a formal aspect. I knew some of these technicalities before but on this trip I was able to reinforce and expand what I knew about the paintings and then consider them further. I thought about many things beyond the paintings that were in front of me.

A good example of this was the work of El Greco. I knew he exaggerated certain components of his paintings and was a little more loose and free than his contemporaries. While looking at the several pieces at the Met, I noticed that they all seemed to be stretched from top to bottom. The figures were longer than normal and I wondered if there was a specific reason for this, or perhaps it was a mistake. I recalled a sketch earlier this week where I made the figure longer than it was in person, which made me consider this possibility. Also, after Marc pointed out his use of a black in his skin tones and the cold, icy feeling his figures had, I began looking at other paintings differently. I was recognizing which painters portrayed figures with warmer colors, or with cooler, icier colors as El Greco had. Knowing how the palette affected the paintings, not just portraits, but paintings containing figures in general, will help me to make better decisions in the future.

As I said, I am not an expert and I have only been to the Met a handful of time, so while some things may lose their initial impact, it's wonderful to find things that still amaze me. One reason why the Met, and any museum you visit regularly, will always have something valuable for you is you never stop learning. There will undoubtedly be something you have learned or encountered since your last visit that will change the way you see things. On this trip, a portrait by Ingres and one of Church's incredible landscapes were two pieces that stood out to me in this regard. I knew about both artists on previous trips, but since my last trip, I had studied them in classes. After knowing more about them through classwork, seeing their work in person was a reinforcement. Even the best reproduction cannot fully replicate the experience of seeing a work in person, especially for these two artists. Ingres incredible line work and attention to detail, texture and form is visible in textbooks, almost unbelievable. Once you see his delicate handling of paint in person, though, you will surely recognize how talented of an artist he was. The same can be said for Church. Reprints of his work are already at a disadvantage because of the sheer size of his work. As you are swallowed by his enormous landscapes in person, often looking at an area of intense detail and brush work, only to move on to another area, forgetting about the first, you wonder what amount of dedication and passion it would take to achieve a work of this magnitude.

Sketching in the Met is also a great experience, especially in the Greco-Roman wing, but that will have to wait for another time. As will our first exotic eating experince, which was Ethiopian, by the way. So if you haven't been to the Met lately and you have the time, take a trip down there. You will be surprised how much you haven't seen, whether you have been there 10 times or 100. We never stop learning.