Curator's Cut 2

More of this enjoyable series of short videos from the Metropolitan Museum filmed during lockdown highlighting recent exhibitions and specific works of art.

These are emailed to members and patrons once a week, so I hope it is OK to share the links. Most take the form of a talk from the curator’s home with a powerpoint presentation. A number of the curators have picked works which are particularly poignant at this time. 

Episode 7 : Zhang Feng's Landscapes

Joseph Scheier-Dolberg, Oscar Tang and Agnes Hsu-Tang Associate Curator of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, discusses Zhang Feng's album of landscapes painted in 1644 as the Ming Dynasty fell. These are delicate drawings from single trees to full scale mountainous ranges and seem to perfectly reflect the turning to nature in times of fear.

Episode 8: TheAutun Virgin and Child

Lucretia Kargère, Conservator for The Cloisters discusses the Autun Virgin and Child at The Cloisters including the findings of a technical examination of the sculpture. She speaks touchingly about what the figure means to her and there are lovely close up images of the detail of the work, one which I didn’t know.

Episode 9:Jewelry for America

Beth Carver Wees, Ruth Bigelow Wriston Curator of American Decorative Arts in the American Wing, gives an overview of  the Jewelry for America installation which looks at the evolution of jewelry worn in the US from the Colonial period to the present day. I particularly liked the little clip on covers for diamond earrings to cover them when travelling or to create a night and day look. 

Episode 10 : AnAncient Roman Masterpiece

Sean Hemingway, John A. and Carole O. Moran Curator in Charge of Greek and Roman Art discusses a newly acquired ancient Roman wellhead from the second century A.D. and the remarkable Greek myths portrayed on it. This is a wonderfully preserved piece with crisp carving showing two myths related to water.

Episode 11: TheBlue State Bed

Wolf Burchard, Associate curator of British Furniture and Decorative Arts. Wolf discusses the state bed, made for a courtier of King William III, which was the first object to be reinstalled in The Met's British Galleries after a four year renovation period. This was a charming talk covering the history of state beds and the speaker’s own interest in them in just 10 minutes.

 

Episode 12 | Velázquez's Juan de Pareja

David Pullins, Associate Curator, European Paintings, speak about Diego Velázquez's Portrait of Juan de Pareja. who spent more than two decades of enslaved service in the Velázquez household before pioneering his own, independent career as a freedman painter in the 1660s


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