Exploring The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Reaction Paper on its Vast Collection

The purpose of this paper is to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art and write a reaction paper about art works at the museum based on my impressions about them. To begin, I will start by giving you a little of background information about this interesting museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens. It opened on February 20, 1872 and was originally located at 681 on Fifth Avenue. Also known as “The Met”, the museum is located on the eastern edge of Central Park in New York City. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art.

The main building of the Met is one of the world’s largest art galleries. The museum permanent collection includes art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all of the European masters and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museum is also home of encyclopedic collections musical instruments, costumes and accessories and antique weapons and armor from around the world.

As of today, The Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet. When I went to the museum I was amazed by it size. It’s a huge building. It has so many steps at the main entrance and you almost can’t walk because so many people are seating at the steps. It is incredible how many people go to the museum. I was surprise. I didn’t think so many people were going to be there from so many places from the city and all across the world. You cannot walk without bumping another person. It is very interesting seeing and learning about all the arts and sculptures you see in there.

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I saw a “Bone Doll” that I found very interesting because it was made with bones incised with schematic anatomical feature formed from a series of geometric shapes and has short arms. There are more elaborate examples that have hair. I also saw a mummy with an inserted panel portrait of a youth from Hawara a part of Egypt. His downy moustache indicates that he was no older than his twenties. I found a Seated Statue of the monarch Idu II Dendera funny because to look at the statue you have to look through a rectangular hole that is in the wall. I think that also makes people curious to look, to see what’s inside there.

I didn’t like the painting “The Man of Sorrows” by Michele Giambono because the man in the painting was bleeding real badly. It was an image of Saint Francis receiving the stigmata with a figure of Christ as the man of sorrows. The painting was done using tempera and gold on wood. I liked the painting of Girolamo dai Libri called “Madona and Child with Saints” because it was a very peaceful environment. Tempera and oil on canvas was used in the painting. The drawing “A Hunting Scene” is a very interesting painting but I didn’t like it because too much violence was involved. The whole drawing is base on killing.

Tempera and oil transferred to masonite were used. The drawing “Hercules and Achelous” is very interesting because Hercules is fighting Achelous who transformed himself into a bull in order to fight Hercules for the favors of Deianeira. In the struggle, one of his horn snapped off and Nymphs filled it with flowers and fruits creating the Cornucopia, Horn of Plenty. In conclusion, I will talk about the most interesting place in the entire museum for me, The Temple of Dendur. It’s amazing how beautiful this place is. At the entrance, you encounter yourself with two big statues that make it looks like if they were guards of the temple.

It also has a very interesting pool aria as part of a landscape of the temple. It’s very beautiful and it gives another look to the temple. At the center, they have two little buildings that you go inside and look at them, and around, they have these kind of benches that you can seat and rest if you have been a while in the museum because trust me, you will get tired. The museum is so big and interesting that you just want to see every little corner like I did. I recommend people to take some time and visit the Met museum because it’s worth going to.

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