The Cloisters
The Cloisters ( German: The cloisters ) is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It is located in Fort Tryon Park near the northern tip of Manhattan on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. The Cloisters was built using architectural fragments mostly French monasteries and houses part of the collection of medieval art at the Metropolitan Museum.
History
The idea for a museum of medieval art in New York City goes back to the sculptor and art collector George Grey Barnard ( 1863-1938 ). This was - in addition to numerous works of art - collected and architectural fragments from several French monasteries. These included Saint -Michel -de- Cuxa, Saint- Guilhem -le- Désert, Bonnefont -en- Comminges, in the Haute -Garonne, Trie -en- Bigorre in the Hautes -Pyrénées; the three Gothic triple arcades in the department of Meurthe Froville -et-Moselle came only through a donation George Blumenthal added in 1935. Barnard opened a private museum at Fort Washington Avenue, which he initially called Gothic Collection, before he renamed it in The Cloisters. This collection came in 1925 in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, after John D. Rockefeller, Jr. made $ 600,000 available for this purpose. As early as 1917 he had purchased the site of today's Fort Tryon Park and erected the building site for today's museum. He also acquired large tracts of land on the opposite side of the Hudson River, so that the views of the undeveloped landscape is maintained. This New Jersey Palisades mentioned area is now a nature reserve within the Palisades Interstate Park.
Building
At the opening of the collection Barnard on May 4, 1926, the person in charge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art realized that her headquarters on Fifth Avenue would not have sufficient and appropriate facilities, to show the numerous works of art and architectural elements appropriate. The architect Charles Collens (1873-1956) was awarded the contract to build a new building in Fort Tryon Park. The complex started in 1934 integrating into them original components of European monasteries and based on the plans of the medieval models. So there is no reconstruction of ever actually existing monastery, but an attempt to recreate a life-like appearance possible. However, the plant with the same several passes equipment is of museum use to assign and not according to the European original equipment. The exemplary manicured gardens have been created faithfully using various medieval documents. Joseph Breck (1885-1933), curator and deputy director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and James Rorimer (1905-1966), the museum's director, later, were responsible for the textual content of the galleries of works from the Romanesque period (about 1000 to 1150 ) to Gothic (ca. 1150-1520 ). On 10 May 1938, the opening of The Cloisters took place at its present location.
1961 north of Madrid salvaged from the ruins of the Romanesque St. Martin's Church of the Spanish village Fuentiduena a whole apse, transported with its 3000 limestone blocks to New York and grown at The Cloisters ( other details: 30,000 ).
Collections
The collection of medieval art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is to see about half of the site The Cloisters, while the other part is shown in the main building. Although the earliest works of art in the Cloisters are from the period around the year 800, the focus of the collections is exhibits from the 12th to the 15th century. In addition to the original columns from different cloisters French monasteries, such as Saint- Guilhem -le- Désert, European arcades, arches, windows, portals and wells have been permanently installed in The Cloisters. Other exhibits include stained glass, metalwork, manuscripts, enamels, paintings, ivory carvings, tapestries and other textiles.
Outstanding works of art in The Cloisters are the Merode Triptych of Robert Campin, a Lorenzo Monaco attributed to intercession of Jesus and Mary and a " Cloisters Cross" or " Bury Cross ," called Romanesque altar cross. From the Rockefeller collection originate seven Flemish tapestries, representing " the hunt of the unicorn " figuratively. Among the most important medieval manuscripts and illuminated books in the collections of the Cloisters include Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry by the Brothers Limbourg and Jean Pucelle's book of hours for Jeanne d' Evreux.
There are also German art in the Cloisters. Apart from a few works by Tilman Riemenschneider are installed in the so-called Boppard Room six rows of windows that were created 1440-1446 in the Cologne area for the Carmelite Church, Boppard.
Other works from Europe come from the chapel of Ebreichsdorfs Castle in Lower Austria, from the parish church of St. Leonhard in Carinthia 's Lavant Valley and a Marie sculpture from the 13th century from the Strasbourg Cathedral.
Quote
The function that should satisfy this monastery in Manhattan, John D. Rockefeller once described as follows: " If those who are overwhelmed by the charm of this place and have his peace, tranquility and beauty can take, with courage and with starched break up hope again, [ ... ] then the work of its builders was not in vain. "So the leading capitalists of the Western world wanted to do something about the nation-wide depression, which was created after the 1929 stock market crash.
Exhibited works of art
Limbourg Brothers: Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry
Lorenzo Monaco: Intercession of Jesus and Mary
15th Century South LA. Netherlands: The Hunt of the Unicorn
Lower half of the window of the Cloister window from the Carmelite Church Boppard