Back for More: Exploring the Met's Neapolitan Baroque Crèche and Seemingly Endless Collection of Art

The Holy Family surrounded by angels, putti and farm animals

My recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York City was so enjoyable I couldn’t wait to come back and see the newly installed Angel Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche in the Medieval Sculpture Hall. One of my favorite Christmas traditions, the Met’s annual Nativity Scene always lifts my spirits and helps usher in the Season of Advent. 

The Neapolitan presepe and Christmas tree in front of the eighteenth
century Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid 

Angelic and lifelike figures abound

Putti and angels adorned with silk robes
encircle the towering twenty-foot blue spruce

A creature of habit, I tend to focus on the same handful of paintings and sculptures during my visits, but this time around I decided to mix things up a bit and explore parts of the museum I have not seen in awhile, including the Modern and Contemporary Art, British Art, and Arms and Armor galleries.

(L) Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus), 1954, oil on canvas by Salvador Dalí.
(R) Madonna, 1958, oil on canvas by Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)

Artillery, 1911, oil on canvas by Roger de la Fresnaye (1885-1925)

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, bronze, modeled 1913,
cast 1950 by Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916)

(L) Portrait of a German Officer, 1914, oil on canvas by Marsden
Hartley (1877-1943). (R) Meeting (Three Graces), 1912, oil
on canvas by Manierre Dawson (1887-1969)

(L) Queen Charlette (1744-1818), consort of King George III (1738-1820),
ca. 1783, oil on canvas by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). (R) King
George IV, when Prince of Wales (1762-1830), after 1798, oil on
canvas by Sir William Beechey (1753-1839) and workshop

(L) Mary Shelley (1797-1851) 1843, marble, by Camillo Pistrucci
(1811-1854.) (R) Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), ca. 1780, Coade
stone, attributed to John Bacon the Elder (1740-1709)

(L) Philip IV (1605-16-65) in Parade Armor, ca. 1628, oil on canvas by
Gasper de Crayer (1584-1669). (R) Armor of Henry II of France,
about 1555, steel, embossed, blued, silvered, and gilt, French

(L). Armor of Infante Luis, Prince of Asturias, 1712, steel, blued and gilt,
gilt brass, silk, cotton, metallic yarn, paper, French. (R) Armor of the
Dukes of Alba, about 1575-85, steel, embossed and damascened
with gold and silver by Lucio Piccinino (active about 1575-90)

(L) Burgonet, in the form of a sea monster, about 1535-45, steal, embossed, partly gilt and silvered, probably Milan. (R) Top view of Burgonet, 1543, embossed steal damascened with gold by Filippo Negroli (about 1510-1579)

Side view of Burgonet, 1543, embossed steal damascened
with gold by Filippo Negroli (about 1510-1579)

Needless to say, I couldn’t deprive myself of seeing a few old favorites in the Medieval, and European Sculpture and Decorative Arts galleries before leaving.

(L) Crozier Depicting God the Father, 1457, gilded silver, translucent enamel
and niello, Naples. (R) Saint Fiacre reliquary in the shape of an arm,
1200-1250, silver sheets on wood, cabochons, and glass, French

(L) Reliquary Arm of St. Valentine, 1300s, silver, partially gilded, sapphire, Swiss. (R) Reliquary of Mary Magdalene's Tooth, made 1300s-1400s,
gilded copper, gilded silver, rock crystal, painted glass, Tuscany

(L) Henri II, King of France, ca. 1555-60, enamel, partly gilded on copper by Leonard Limosin (ca. 1505-1575/77). (R) Charles IX, King of France, shortly after 1561, oil on wood, style of François Clouet (ca. 1516-1572)

Red wax Seal of King Louis XII of France, 1498-1515, French

(L) Bronze medal of François I, King of France, cast after 1515, French.
(R) Bronze medal of Louise de Savoie, Duchess d'Angoulême
and Mother of the Future François I, cast ca. 1505, French

Basin with St. George and the Dragon, late 1400s, Brass, German