When you go to a birthday party for a four year old, you can come home with butterfly wings.....if you're lucky. Fiona (4 yr old) and I like to have our faces painted for the party.
That wasn't the only thrill of the weekend. We got to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is probably my favorite place to go in NYC. This time we saw two major exhibitions: 'Raphael' and 'Japanese Ceramics'.
Raphael was a painter during the Renaissance in the 16th century. He worked for the Popes of the Catholic church including Julius II. The Catholic church were just about the only paying customers for works of art especially if you were Italian. Raphael was known as "the painter's painter". His talent was immense. He was acknowledged as a 'master' at age 17. He did a few portraits of famous people of the time, but he mostly painted religious subjects including several Madonna and Child pictures. I wonder if he ever said, Oh, no, not another one.
His most famous work of art is a fresco which means you have to go to the Vatican to see it. It's called 'School of Athens' and is my favorite Raphael.
The exhibit at the MET is a combination of Raphael's drawings, most of which are studies, and completed paintings from all over the world. Here's one of my favorite paintings
Raphael's portraits of Mary and the baby Jesus seem like they are real people. All of his portraits of Mary/Jesus/John the Baptist/Joseph have that same quality. He achieves it with different models in different settings.
Not only did he paint religious figures, he also painted portraits:
Raphael also created cartoons. No, not the animated type; a cartoon in the art world means a blueprint for a tapestry. An artist would draw and paint a picture, then the weavers would create a tapestry of the picture (or cartoon). The exhibition had a couple of tapestries based on Raphael's cartoons.
Sadly, Raphael's genius was cut short. He died on his 37th birthday after contracting a fever.
From the crowds at the Raphael exhibition, we headed to the new Japanese display in the Asia wing. Our time in Japan made this exhibition that much more enjoyable.
I'm going to begin with the kimonos. They were scattered throughout the exhibition, but I just love to look at the exquisite embroidery on these pieces of clothing.
There were also ancient and modern pieces of Japanese ceramics.
Naturally, I took pictures. Yes, I know you're shocked.
Here is my link to the pix:
