The Met: Cycladic Art

Our interest in Cycladic art stems from our visits to Greece in 2010 and 2011. Also from our interests in anything neolithic. Very briefly, the Cyclades are the many islands of the southern Aegean, north of Crete and between mainland Greece and Turkey. The islands have been inhabited for aeons, and Cycladic art is generally compared with Minoan and Mycenean art, from the bronze age. But Cycladic art is much older, some specimens going back into the deeper neolithic, 7,000 years ago. It consists very largely of marble figurines, nearly always female, nearly always in the same standing pose, arms crossed (usually left over right), devoid of any but the largest features. In age they range over several thousand years, and have been found all over the region, nearly always in burial sites, both male and female sites, always reclining, often broken into pieces. Evidence of paint has been found on many. Art historians have identified several different ages and styles of these figures. 

But that is absolutely all that is known. There has been much speculation about the purposes and functions of these figurines, but, as with anything about the neolithic, and beyond, it can never be anything more than speculation. Which gives rise to one of the first principles of anthropology: whenever you are utterly clueless about something's meaning or function, say it is "ceremonial." But I digress.

The Met has the largest and most impressive collection of Cycladic art we have seen, outside of Greece. (The British Museum's Cycladic room was closed during our last several visits). What is pictured here is just the Leonard Stern Collection. The Met has more in the Greek/Roman study hall upstairs and still more in the still-closed Rockefeller collection.

Helpful map of the immediate region

Among several display cases; Cycladic clay is said to have been of
poor quality, so there isn't much in the way of pottery 

An unusual specimen, headless, arms not crossed, with 

thigh-pads, and a "voluminous" posterior

Voluminous

Me and mini-me?

Pregnant?

Very rare...a musician

One of several relatively large specimens

Cycladic silver bowls, c. 3,000BCE

Terracotta vase for multiple offerings, c. 2,000BCE

Comfy chair

The largest of the collection, perhaps 4 feet high; alas,
only the torso is original, the head and legs modern 
additions...oh well...

The Met: Greece

We did the docent-led tour of (ancient) Greek and Roman art, and here I'll post just a few specimens...reserving a separate post for my personal favorite, Cycladic art. The Roman art post will include quite a bit more Greek art, too, since much of classical western art is displayed in one large "study" hall on the second floor.

A kouros, or youth, pre-classical

A griffin

As in this grave marker

Happy 6th century BCE face

Personal favorite, the octopus jar, c. 13th century BCE

Early pilates experimentation

A krater, a ceremonial bowl for mixing water and wine (what?!); this
550BCE specimen depicting Dionysus escorting Hephaistos back
to Mount Olympus (it's a long story)

Name that tune...drinking cup

Said to be one of the more perfect specimens, a singer
with lyre (kithara) in a musical competition

Another musical scene, with muses...

Dish with lid, tempura painting scenes, Greek/Sicilian,
4th century BCE

The Met: Egypt

We're finding the Met pretty overwhelming...encyclopedic beyond anything else in our experience. We'd visited a couple times in our pre-retirement years, but had forgotten just how large and varied its collections are. As in the case of other large museums, we're taking it slowly, as methodically as we can, three or four visits a week. The blog is already far behind...

[Reserved for pix and narrative from our visit to the Met's enormous Egyptian collection, to appear soon...things got a little out of order]

And Now, For Something Completely Different...

We left the Grant memorial and turned left, intending to head for the Riverside Church and then the Columbia U campus, but were immediately arrested by the sight of a great Gaudi-esque bench/wall that almost encircles the memorial site. We'd been to Gaudi's Park Guell installations in Barcelona (here and here) and an imitation/allusion in Lima (here), but...New York City?! And the Grant memorial?! Although Grant was much given to literary art--he nearly quit West Point for his interest in novels and plays--one wonders what he would have made of Gaudi. In any case, the Riverside "rolling mosaic bench" was a 1972 community arts undertaking, the largest of its time, but without any reference to Antonio Gaudi. Or General Grant. Sic transit, Gloria.

Grant's Tomb

I have long been a Grant fan--my favorite general, among my favorite presidents, my favorite American, FWIW--and have long been under the sway of the several revisionist historians who have written about him in recent years. Also my favorite smoker and drinker, pal of Mark Twain, and man of simple virtues, trust, and faithfulness. His memorial, now administered by the National Park Service, is just a few blocks up the river from our apartment, so I had to make the pilgrimage. Vicki has always been curious about who is buried in Grant's tomb, so she made the pilgrimage too.

In Riverside Park, about 123rd St.

The whole thing is said to have been modeled on the
great mausoleum of Halicarnassus

The tombs of Grant and his wife, Julia

From his 2nd term as President

Vicksburg..."dust-covered man on a dust-covered horse"...like his
monument before the US Capitol

A couple side-rooms show Civil War battle sites

His principal lieutenant

The memorial was built and paid for privately, by subscription; Grant was
the great man of the 19th century in the US; surpassed by Lincoln only in
the 20th century

Oh, the answer to the great Marxist (Groucho) question about Grant's Tomb is:
no one; see the Wikipedia entry...