Imperial Highlights & Old Favorites at the Met (Part 1)

Diana and the Stag, partly gilded silver, enamel, gemstones,
iron and wood, German, Augsburg, ca. 1620, Joachim Friess

At long last, we finally got to see the newly designed Layered Narratives: The Northern Renaissance Gallery and British Vision, 1700–1900: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Friday afternoon. Highlighting the museum’s extraordinary array of vivid and inspiring masterpieces from the Holy Roman and British empires, it turned out to be one of the more memorable visits we’ve had in a long time.

As an added bonus, we also got to see the Museum’s renowned collection of François Auguste René Rodin sculptures and a new rotation of works in the Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Barbizon school galleries, which boasts the largest group of paintings (25 as of this writing) by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot after the French national collections in Paris.

See part 2

Highlights from Layered Narratives: The Northern Renaissance Gallery

Still Life with Skull and Writing Quill, Dutch, 1628, oil on wood, Pieter Claesz

Death, German, mid-17th century, lindenwood with traces of pigment, spruce base. The plumed turban may be a reference to the Ottoman Empire

Sphinx aeolipile (steam blower), bronze with dark patina,
silver, South German, Augsburg, or Bohemian, ca. 1590-1600

(L-R) Astronomical table clock, gilded brass, copper and silver, 17th century, German, Augsburg; Clock-watch with sundial, ca. 1605-10, gilded brass, silver and copper, Dutch, Haarlem; Mirror clock, ca. 1565-70, gilded brass, copper, plated iron and iron wheels, German, Nuremberg; and Astronomical table
clock, 1568, gilded brass, iron, German, Augsburg

Details of female virtues from oak cupboard
(beeldenkast), 1622, Dutch, Amsterdam

Aglauro's Vision of the Bridal Chamber of Herse, from the Story of Mercury and Herse. Design attributed to Giovanni Battista Lodi da Cremona (active 1540–52) After a print by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (Parma or Verona ca. 1500/1505–1565 Krakow (?)): Marriage of Alexander & Roxana, after Raphael Border design attributed to Giovanni Francesco Penni Florence ca. 1496–after 1528 Naples (from the set of the "Acts of the Apostles") Weaving workshop directed by Willem de Pannemaker (Flemish, active Brussels, 1535–78, died 1581)

Maximillian II, Holy Roman Emperor, 1575, Silver, Antonio Abondio

Small drinking cup (krause) German, Nuremberg, ca. 1530, salt-glazed earthenware, silver and gilded silver mounts

Highlights from British Vision, 1700–1900: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints

Entrance to the Grotto of Posillipo, Naples, 1778-79,
watercolor over graphite, John "Warwick" Smith

Near Santa Maria de' Monti, Naples, 1781,
graphite, brush and gray wash and ink, Thomas Jones

A Road in a Gorge near Naples, 1782, watercolor
and gum arabic glazes of graphite, Thomas Jones

A Country Girl at Surrentum, 1776, red chalk,
heightened with white, Allan Ramsay

Bay of Naples—A Land of Smouldering Fire, 1871, watercolor with gum arabic and touches of gouache over graphite, Alfred William Hunt

A Clump of Trees, ca. 1757, graphite, brush
and gray wash, Thomas Gainsborough