Marion and Sof’ia Get Lost in the Met
Cow art is eternal. Taken at the Met exhibit on Dutch Master painters, Jan 2020
A few weeks ago, my good friend Lady Sof’ia and I made a weekend trip up to New York to go museum hopping. We had two items on our to-do list and they both absolutely lived up to what we were hoping for.
On my list was viewing the Colmar Treasure at the Met Cloisters. Colmar was a town in medieval Alsace that used to have a Jewish population. When Colmar was hit with the Plague, the Jewish community was blamed and in a rash of anti-Semitic violence, was wiped out. This treasure was found hidden in the wall of a confectioner's shop and was exposed during renovations. Jewish history is filled with incidents like this, and it creates lasting effects in us as a population. To me, it's an incredibly special moment when my love for Judaism dovetails with my love for the SCA and allows me to honor these people by viewing and remembering their lives. The treasure itself is exquisite, combining elements of French, German, Italian, and Jewish cultures, and I can't wait to find a way to work it into some A&S. If anyone is interested, I did buy the book and I'm happy to scan pages of it and send them.
The rest of the cloisters was equally incredible. The building itself is a treasure trove of architecture and I highly recommend a visit. I found some beautiful statues and inspiration for future blackwork projects, as well as learned that for some reason, the giant birdbath like objects used for baptisms is called a font (who knew? Not this Jew!)
And then we got to the Met 5th Avenue and holy cow did it live up to all my wildest dreams. We started at an exhibit on Dutch Master painters, and I was reminded how much I enjoy Rembrandt. We stumbled on a small exhibit on the monetary value of medieval art that turned out to be the highlight of our trip because it showed the value of art in how many cows would it cost to purchase. The context helps and I never thought I'd say the sentence "oh, only 9 cows for the porn" in my life but here we are. The chalice shown in the slideshow above was valued at 225 cows. I spent WAY more time than originally anticipated looking at armor for the horse I will definitely someday own (we're not telling Evan yet that the horse is getting armor but it's definitely happening), and exploring an exhibit on Medieval innovations and inventions.
Things we did learn about the Met- the two halves don't connect and the map stinks. Also, a great reminder that I stink at reading maps but that's neither here nor there. It only took us about 45 minutes to get from the side where the armor halls are to the other, where Maximillian was.
Sof’ia's big-ticket item in New York was seeing an exhibit at the Met 5th Avenue on the arms and armor of Emperor Maximillian. It was as grandiose as anticipated and included a really fascinating walk through not just of his accomplishments as Emperor but his rise to power and the aftermath of his passing. Predictably, I got distracted by horse armor and pretty dresses, but I also enjoyed a series of sketches showing the Emperor competing in jousting competitions in disguise (poorly, I'm sure everyone knew it was him).
