Art the Metropolitan Museum of Art Currently Term Paper

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art currently presents three fascinating special exhibits including one on cubism, another on Renaissance tapestry, and a third on ancient Assyrian art. Each of these three special exhibits is different, and exciting in its own way. The exhibit on Renaissance tapestry is entitled "Grand Design" and focuses on the work of Pieter Coecke van Aelst. Some of the tapestries are lavish and intricate, such as the "Seven Deadly Sins." Having never before encountered tapestries from this era, I was stunned at the workmanship and marveled at the amount of time it must have taken to weave these incredible patterns. As if on cue, the museum's curator had prepared several information panels informing viewers about the process of tapestry making, its history, and its relevance during the Renaissance. Van Aelst had produced tapestries for Europe's elite, including the Medici family. This made me ponder the nature of globalization, and how Europe was uniting itself with commercial activities many centuries prior to the advent of the euro. In fact, subsequent tapestries in the collection, such as "Customs and Fashions of the Turks," shows that the world was becoming smaller and smaller as the age of exploration commenced. Even though many of the tapestries depicted world trade and various cultures, there were also several that either showed Biblical scenes or scenes from classical mythology. The Biblical tapestries were from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The neoclassical imagery made many of van Aelst's tapestries seem ahead of their time, as the revival of interest in Greco-Roman architectural imagery and mythology boomed in the nineteenth century.

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It is worth noting also that some of the tapestries seemed cryptic and almost out of place, such as "A Horseman Abducting a Woman," which had an unfinished and dreamlike quality.

Moving onto the exhibit entitled "Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age," I was immediately mystified by the sublime artifacts presented. Hundreds of items, ranging from tiny pieces of jewelry to massive statuary, stared at us from the past. Just as the tapestry exhibit showed how the Renaissance era ushered in a new order of global trade, the Assyria to Iberia exhibit demonstrated that world trade had been going on for at least a millennia prior to that. Middle Eastern cultures and their highly advanced arts and technologies were carried through established trade routes and reached Western Europe. Thus, the Mediterranean became a melange of cultures. Gazing at the artwork of ancient Assyria, one can envision traces of influence from Greece, Egypt, and Babylonia. For example, the Ashurnasirpal statue on loan from the British museum bears resemblance to Babylonian figures, as does the Cylinder Seal showing a man grasping an ostrich after killing it with his bow and arrow. One of the most striking pieces in this collection was the demon Pazuzu, with its four wings and frightful face. Likewise, a furniture fitting depicting an animal resembling a lion attacking a human being has an erotic dimension….....

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