When my brother visited me recently, NYC experienced one of the hottest days it had seen in years. But we had lots of plans, and the heat wasn't going to stop us... so off we went. As we jumped on the subway that morning, the billboard thermometer in my neighborhood read 114 degrees.. and it was only 10am! But we forged ahead... and after a nice long train ride (on an un-air-conditioned train)...
We finally reached our destination!
(And yes, my brother is a REALLY good sport for riding on a train with no A/C for 150 blocks!)
The Cloisters, which are a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, are devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. The cloisters were assembled from architectural elements, both domestic and religious, that date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century. The building and its cloistered gardens are located in Fort Tryon Park, just north of the 190th stop on the A train. The Cloisters collection comprises approximately three thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about the ninth to the sixteenth century.
There are oodles of beautiful works of art displayed at the Cloisters. For example, this is the Annunciation Triptych, which was painted around 1427–32. When I think of what sort of materials were available to artists back then, works like this are absolutely astonishing!
Or this rosary bead (which opens to reveal a triptych), which was carved out of boxwood in the early 16th century.
It seems that everywhere you look in the cloisters...
There's something fascinating...
Or beautiful to behold.
Plus, there are certain rooms that contain just one thing... like a room full of tapestries!
For example, I'll let the Met's website explain this piece of art:
The seven individual hangings known as "The Unicorn Tapestries," are among the most beautiful and complex works of art from the late Middle Ages that survive. Luxuriously woven in fine wool and silk with silver and gilded threads, the tapestries vividly depict scenes associated with a hunt for the elusive, magical unicorn.Can you believe it was made between 1495–1505??
"The Unicorn in Captivity" may have been created as a single image rather than part of a series. In this instance, the unicorn probably represents the beloved tamed. He is tethered to a tree and constrained by a fence, but the chain is not secure and the fence is low enough to leap over: The unicorn could escape if he wished. Clearly, however, his confinement is a happy one, to which the ripe, seed-laden pomegranates in the tree—a medieval symbol of fertility and marriage—testify. The red stains on his flank do not appear to be blood, as there are no visible wounds like those in the hunting series; rather, they represent juice dripping from bursting pomegranates above. Many of the other plants represented here, such as wild orchid, bistort, and thistle, echo this theme of marriage and procreation: they were acclaimed in the Middle Ages as fertility aids for both men and women. Even the little frog, nestled among the violets at the lower right, was cited by medieval writers for its noisy mating.
There's also a room of tombs.
Lots of sarcophagi line the walls of this room, and each tell a different story.
Like this one from the mid-13th century:
Jean d'Alluye was a knight of Philip Augustus and one of the principal nobles of the Loire Valley. His career included a trip to the Holy Land, where he acquired a relic of the True Cross. In 1248 he was buried at La Clarté-Dieu, the abbey near Tours that he had founded in 1239. This effigy, in an attitude of prayer, was turned upside down and used as a bridge over a nearby stream. Around 1900 it was purchased from a Paris dealer by George Grey Barnard, an American whose collection forms the core of The Cloisters.
The cloisters also house several chapels.
This first one, located just inside the entrance to the museum...
Is home to this crucifix, which was made in 1150, and still boasts most of it's original paint!
I think this Doorway from Moutiers-Saint-Jean is particularly fancy:
According to tradition, the monastery of Moutiers-Saint-Jean was founded by the first Christian kings of France, Clovis I and his son Clothar I. They are almost certainly depicted in the standing figures presenting their charters, now installed in the embrasures on either side of the portal. The small seated figures in the flanking niches represent biblical personages believed to prefigure or foretell Christ's Crucifixion. The tympanum above the doorway depicts Christ crowning the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven. This portal, probably from the north aisle of the cloister, would have led from the monastic precinct into the abbey church. The portal suffered severe damage during the sixteenth-century Wars of Religion; the heads of the two kings may have been repaired in the seventeenth century.
And through the door was a chapel my brother particularly liked, the Chapel from Notre-Dame-du-Bourg at Langon:
Parts of this chapel-like gallery were constructed with twelfth-century limestone blocks from the church of Notre-Dame-du-Bourg at Langon, located about nineteen miles east of Bordeaux. According to one seventeenth-century document, the small parish church—which had a single apse nave, slightly projecting transepts, and a semi-circular apse—was founded in 1126 as a dependency of the nearby abbey of Notre-Dame-de-la-Grande-Sauve. Seven capitals from the crossing and choir of Langon are installed in this gallery, all of them decorated with human heads or figures carved almost in the round. The crowned female bust on one of the capitals has often been identified as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122?–1204), one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages. However, other than a trip she took to the region with her husband, King Henry II of England (r. 1154–89), in the 1150s—when they might have spent one night at the nearby Notre-Dame-de-la-Grande-Sauve—there is no documentary evidence that Eleanor ever visited Langon or that the bust was intended to portray her. The blind arches lining the walls (below, left) and the predominantly geometric patterns decorating the abaci, arches, and cornices (below, right) are all characteristic of the late-twelfth century architecture in western France.
Like many religious monuments in France, Notre-Dame-du-Bourg suffered repeated damage, especially from the Hundred Years' War and the French Revolution. By the early nineteenth century the choir had been divided into two levels: the lower served as a stable, while the upper became a dance hall, then a theater. When the Museum purchased the chapel fragments in 1934, the upper level was being used to store tobacco (above). The reconstructed chapel is about three-quarters of its original size.
Oh, and my favorite parts of the Cloisters?
The outdoor spaces!
I love wandering through the columns to enjoy the lovely gardens... and taking pictures out there is so much fun!
"Whenever any important business has to be done in the monastery, let the Abbot call together the whole community and state the matter to be acted upon." So Saint Benedict began Chapter 3 of his "Rule for Monasteries." The chapter house was devised to facilitate such meetings. Usually located off the cloister, chapter houses, such as this example, were generally rectangular in shape and furnished with stone-hewn benches encircling the room.
The abbot sat on a separate, often raised seat. The room was illuminated by windows on the rear wall, as well as by the arcades at the entrance. This view of the Pontaut Chapter House from Pontaut in southwest France shows the entrance from the cloister. Originally the interior walls were plastered and perhaps painted. (Some color can still be seen on the ribs of the vaults.) The decorations of the capitals and abacus blocks are imaginatively varied and include rosettes, palmettes, and basket-weave patterns as well as carvings representing pinecones.
Like many other church buildings, the abbey of Pontaut suffered from changing political fortunes and neglect: it was partially destroyed in 1569 during the Wars of Religion and was abandoned by 1791 in the aftermath of the French Revolution. By the nineteenth century, the chapter house was being used as a stable, and it fell into a dilapidated condition until its purchase in the early 1930s.
As you can tell, I like visiting the Cloisters, especially with my brother!
I have a few more photos to share, so be sure to stop by tomorrow! Have a great day!
