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| The Century Association clubhouse, located at 7 West 43rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and completed in 1891 |
Arriving early for a lunch meeting at the Century Association—even by my own hyper-punctual standards—I found myself with time to spare. Rather than linger idly, I walked over to the nearby Treasures exhibition at the New York Public Library.
An eclectic assemblage of objects of varying importance, the exhibition’s unevenness is part of its charm. Moving through it, one encounters not a single narrative but fragments of many—scientific, artistic, religious—each briefly illuminated before giving way to the next (see images below).
It is, in the end, less a cohesive exhibition than a cabinet of curiosities. But perhaps that is the point. To pass, in the span of an hour, from medieval chant to Renaissance printmaking to early modern astronomy is to be reminded how much of the past survives—not as a continuous story, but as scattered inheritances, waiting to be noticed.
When I stepped back out onto Fifth Avenue, I had just enough time to make my way to my meeting.
An eclectic assemblage of objects of varying importance, the exhibition’s unevenness is part of its charm. Moving through it, one encounters not a single narrative but fragments of many—scientific, artistic, religious—each briefly illuminated before giving way to the next (see images below).
It is, in the end, less a cohesive exhibition than a cabinet of curiosities. But perhaps that is the point. To pass, in the span of an hour, from medieval chant to Renaissance printmaking to early modern astronomy is to be reminded how much of the past survives—not as a continuous story, but as scattered inheritances, waiting to be noticed.
When I stepped back out onto Fifth Avenue, I had just enough time to make my way to my meeting.
An Afternoon at the Century Association
Every day, I find myself asking a simple question: how does an old, grumpy street urchin from Brooklyn keep ending up in such rarefied places? In the past year alone, I have had an audience with the Pope, dined at the Palazzo Borghese, and met Prince Carlo di Borbone at the Grand Magistery in Rome. None of it quite fits the script I once imagined for myself.
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| Cufflink with the two-faced god Janus |
Inside, the club revealed itself gradually. On the second floor, an art exhibit by its members was underway, while the stairways were lined with pieces from the permanent collection, left behind by earlier generations. One room in particular stood out: a gallery devoted to the Hudson River School, where a large, luminous landscape by John Frederick Kensett drew the eye. The building itself, styled after an Italian palazzo, was furnished with marble and bronze sculptures, arranged without ostentation.
No photographs were permitted—a small frustration, perhaps—but also a fitting one. Some places are meant to be experienced rather than documented, and to leave with the memory intact, unmediated, is its own kind of privilege.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, May 1st, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker
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| De astronomia, attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus (1st century), illuminated manuscript, 1475-1480 |
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| Harmonia Macrocosmica, Andreas Cellarius (ca. 1596-1665), Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius, 1661 |
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| Hunt-Lenox Globe, copper, ca. 1508 |
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| (L) "Four scenes from the Life of Daniel," in Part II, Volume 3 of Bible historiale (Historical Bible), illuminated manuscript, ca. 1480. Artist: Associate of Jean Bourdichon (1457-1521). Authors: Petrus Comestor (ca. 1100-1179), and Guyart des Moulins (ca. 1251-ca. 1297). (R) Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Francesco Colonna (ca. 1453-1517), Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1499 |
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| (L) Il Terzo Libro Di Sabastiano Serlio...(The Third Book of Sebastiano Serlio), Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554), Venetia: Impresso per Francesco Marcolino da Forli, 1540. (R) Book of Medieval Chant Fragments, iron gall ink on paper, 11th-12th centuries |
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| Symphony No. 32 in G Major, K. 318, 1779, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) |
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| Vida de San Felipe de Jesus Protomartir del Japon y Patron de su Patria México, hand-colored engravings, 1801, José María Montes de Oca (1772-ca. 1825) |
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| Frontispiece to the Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), etching ca. 1748, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) |
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| Poster for the musical Jumbo at the New York Hippodrome, color lithograph mounted on board, ca. 1935 |
