Smarthistory: The Blog » At the Met

The Unicorn in Captivity at the Cloisters

Beth — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:55:30 +0000

The Unicorn in Captivity (one of seven woven hangings popularly known as the Unicorn Tapestries or the Hunt of the Unicorn), 1495–1505, South Netherlandish, Wool, silk, silver, and gilt (The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

A video for those new to Art History…

Beth — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:02:44 +0000

Just redid this video, and don’t think we ever posted it here…
It’s a long one – intended to introduce some of the main ideas of the discipline of art history.

VAM Student Podcasts

Beth — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:53:58 +0000

The VAM (Visual Art Management) senior class did a great job on their podcasts last week at the Courbet exhibition at the Meropolitan Museum of Art. Here they are. Great work guys!

Degas, The Dance Class (1874)

Beth — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:43:51 +0000

An enhanced podcast about Degas’ The Dance Class, 1874 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Euphronios, Terracotta calyx-krater

Beth — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 18:32:29 +0000

Euphronios (painter), Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), ca. 515 B.C.

News update:
For two and a half millennia this magnificent vase laid relatively undisturbed, however its recent history has been far from tranquil. Long disputed by the Italian authorities, the Metropolitan Museum of Art had claimed legal ownership based on the belief that the vase had been purchased from a reputable dealer prior to the enactment of a 1939 Italian antiquities law. Nevertheless, the Italian authorities have finally prevailed. They contend that the vase was unearthed by thieves who raided an ancient tomb at the necropolis at Cerveteri, north of Rome and that the Metropolitan acquired it from a dealer who’s story of its provenance has been directly contradicted by a confiscated diary outlining the involvement of another dealer convicted of trafficking in looted antiquities. The upshot is that ownership of one of the single most important works of art in the Met’s collection has been transferred to Italy.

Campin, Merode Altarpiece, ca. 1425 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Tue, 08 May 2007 06:51:34 +0000

An enhanced podcast about this Northern Renaissance masterpiece.

Degas, Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub, 1885 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:10:03 +0000

An enhanced podcast about Degas’ Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub, 1885 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, ca. 1662

Beth — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 22:24:17 +0000

Here is a podcast about this lovely Vermeer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rembrandt’s Self Portrait from 1660 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beth — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:36:42 +0000

Here’s a podcast about this late self-portrait by Rembrandt.

An enhanced podcast about David’s Death of Socrates, 1787 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 23:29:11 +0000

Jacques Louis David is one of our favorite artists, and so this one was fun to do. This pocast will be useful in both of our online courses — Steven’s on Modern Art — which begins with this period (or should), and my survey class which ends with Neo-Classicism.

An enhanced podcast about Gerard David’s Madonna and Child with Angels (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 19:43:34 +0000

It’s been a while — we’ve been busy — but we went back to the Met for some more podcasts. Here’s one on this beautiful Northern Renaissance painting by Gerard David, from 1510-15.

Picasso’s Portrait of Gertrude Stein

Beth — Fri, 19 May 2006 02:51:00 +0000

And here we discuss this famous portrait of Gertrude Stein at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mary Cassatt, The Cup of Tea, ca. 1879 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:36:00 +0000

The Cup of Tea (c. 1879)by the American artist Mary Cassatt which is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We talk about the freedom of the brushwork and the lack of narrative structure, features which would have disturbed most viewers in the 1880s.

Manet, Boating, 1874 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Tue, 16 May 2006 00:38:28 +0000

From our old blog:
Here is our podcast of the beautiful painting by Manet of a couple boating on the Seine in the suburban town of Argenteuil.

Courbet, Young Women from the Village, 1852 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Tue, 16 May 2006 00:26:31 +0000

From our old blog: Here’s a brief discussion of a seemingly ugly painting by Courbet of three young women distributing alms to a young peasant girl in rural France, exhibited at the salon of 1852. The Daumier print below, The Bourgeois at the Salon, points out the irony of the “high” art at the salon while also poking fun at the well-dressed man who makes a real effort to grapple with it.

Gerome, Pymalion and Galatea, c. 1890 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Tue, 16 May 2006 00:02:57 +0000

I couldn’t help but add the quotes below to accompany our discussion of Gerome’s Pygmalion and Galatea in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ovid’s Metamorphosis:
Pygmalion had seen them, spending their lives in wickedness, and, offended by the failings that nature gave the female heart, he lived as a bachelor, without a wife or partner for his bed. But, with wonderful skill, he carved a figure, brilliantly, out of snow-white ivory, no mortal woman, and fell in love with his own creation. He marvels: and passion, for this bodily image, consumes his heart. Often, he runs his hands over the work, tempted as to whether it is flesh or ivory, not admitting it to be ivory. he kisses it and thinks his kisses are returned; and speaks to it; and holds it, and imagines that his fingers press into the limbs, and is afraid lest bruises appear from the pressure. The day of Venus’s festival came…when Pygmalion, having made his offering, stood by the altar, and said, shyly: “If you can grant all things, you gods, I wish as a bride to have…” and not daring to say “the girl of ivory” he said “one like my ivory girl.” Golden Venus, for she herself was present at the festival, knew what the prayer meant, and as a sign of the gods’ fondness for him, the flame flared three times, and shook its crown in the air. When he returned, he sought out the image of his girl, and leaning over the couch, kissed her. She felt warm: he pressed his lips to her again, and also touched her breast with his hand. The ivory yielded to his touch, and lost its hardness, altering under his fingers….The lover is stupefied, and joyful, but uncertain, and afraid he is wrong, reaffirms the fulfilment of his wishes, with his hand, again, and again.

Claribel Alegría, “Galatea Before the Mirror”:
my perfection isn’t mine you invented it I am only the mirror in which you preen yourself and for that very reason I despise you.

Simone de Beauvoir:
When I started writing — it wasn’t exactly memoirs, but an essay on myself — I realized that I needed first of all to situate myself as a woman. So first I studied what it meant to be a woman in the eyes of others, and that’s why I talked about the myths of woman as seen by men; then I realized it was necessary to go deeper to the heart of reality, and that is why I studied physiology, history, and the evolution of the female condition.

Giotto, The Epiphany, c. 1320 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Mon, 15 May 2006 23:47:04 +0000

Another podcast from our old blog — this one about a beautiful painting by the great trecento artist, Giotto.

Euphronious, Sarpedon calyx-krater, ca. 515 bc (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beth — Mon, 15 May 2006 07:28:00 +0000

This podcast is about the Attic red-figure painting of the fallen hero Sarpedon on an ancient Greek calyx-krater from the archaic period (ca. 515 B.C.), painted by Euphronios. We discuss the shift from black-figure painting to red-figure, and the gradual move away from the archaic style, which was influenced by the ancient Egyptians, to the more naturalistic style of the classical period.

A Roman copy of an ancient Greek Sculpture

Beth — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 21:52:00 +0000

Here is our podcast of this Roman (marble) copy of an ancient Greek (bronze) sculpture by the famous artist Polykleitos. The original bronze was sculpted during the classical period. Polykleitos was interested in a “canon” of proportions that would dictate how the human body should be represented at its most perfect and harmonious. This harmony was found both in the position of the figure (in perfectly balanced contrapposto) and in the harmonious relationship of the parts to the whole. This is a good example of the ancient Greek interest, during the classical period, in the idealized, young, athletic male body.

Statue of Diadoumenos (youth tying a fillet around his head), ca. 69�96 A.D.

Right click here to download the MP3, or listen using the player below.

Carlo Crivelli Podcast

Beth — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 00:44:00 +0000

Here, in our second podcast attempt, we discuss one of the Carlo Crivelli’s at the Met. Right click here to download the mp3 or listen with the player below.

podcast beta – Renoir

Beth — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 12:44:00 +0000

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Two Young Girls at the Piano, 1892 (Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This is our first attempt to publish a renegade museum audio guide, inspired by the folks at Marymount Manhattan College –http://mod.blogs.com/art_mobs/
Any opportunity to undermine the museum’s deadly meta-narratives is enormously appealing and so we couldn’t resist.

We are particularly interested in the potential for podcasting in higher education, and specifically for distance learning.

Please right click here to download the mp3 or listen to the podcast on the player below, and let us know what you think.