Module 11 Museum Walkthrough
Step 1: The Gallery/Museum
The name of the museum I visited is The Metropolitan Museum of Art
URL: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-metropolitan-museum-of-art
I selected this gallery because I have never been to the Met but I have always wanted to, it is also a famous museum.
Step 2: The Gallery
1.) The lighting used mostly is white light used to showcase the absence and presence of the art. A white light highlights the art. In some room with sculptures, there seem to be skylights so there are a lot of windows with light leaking through. The rooms all share the same bright light.
2.) On the walls, there are neutral colors mostly, mixed into the white-walled rooms are dark red rooms, the colors used in rooms are picked for a reason, the backdrop could be representative of weather at the time the art was painted, the curators want to create a specific atmosphere with the colors.
3.) The architecture includes archways with columns, some parts of the museum have simple entryways, one room, in particular, I looked at was staged like an ornate living room with a grand fireplace, victorian looking chairs, and large mirrors. The scaffolding is basic in most rooms, and the more modern rooms have clean edges and basic walls.
4.) Walking through a common theme is a big room with paintings all along the edges of the walls, the paintings are lined up perfectly and allow the viewer’s eyes to do a 360 around the rooms. In sculpture rooms, there are multiple glass display cases scattered throughout the room, there are usually large amounts of space between sculptures so you can see the forms from every angle. There are grand ornate hallways in the Met, arches, columns, bright lights, high ceilings, plants lining the hallways and in the middle.
Step 3: The Artworks
1.) The artworks in rooms are usually lined up along the edges of the walls. In the sculpture rooms, the display cases or raw sculptures are scattered randomly in the large rooms.
4.) Walking through a common theme is a big room with paintings all along the edges of the walls, the paintings are lined up perfectly and allow the viewer’s eyes to do a 360 around the rooms. In sculpture rooms, there are multiple glass display cases scattered throughout the room, there are usually large amounts of space between sculptures so you can see the forms from every angle. There are grand ornate hallways in the Met, arches, columns, bright lights, high ceilings, plants lining the hallways and in the middle.
Step 3: The Artworks
1.) The artworks in rooms are usually lined up along the edges of the walls. In the sculpture rooms, the display cases or raw sculptures are scattered randomly in the large rooms.
2.)The artworks on display can be fashion-based, Egyptian art, Chinese art, European art, photography, sculpture, Baroque, Vases, Renaissance, the museum has a large melting pot of every kind of art and they section it off nicely. In one room, in particular, the Édouard Manet room has the paintings all made by him, he paints people as his main subject a lot, the medium is oil on canvas. The people in his paintings all share the same light skin tone, some paintings his muses are doing a pose, in the middle of an action, and the others are just simple portraits where the person is just facing the viewer.
3.) In a room labeled “Byzantine Art,” the art is different in its presentation, some pieces are in display cases, some are just out in the open on top of surfaces. The doorways in this room are very ornate and detailed. There are hanging lights and uplighting. There are pieces like plates, cups, bowls, large carved stones, and large crosses. Rooms like this are unlike the rooms just showcasing paintings because they don’t just have paintings lining the walls, instead, they have display cases, and few paintings altogether.
4.) The artworks throughout the museum are framed based on the art displayed. Simple thin frames line landscape type paintings, while portraits have large, detailed frames. Frames are very important to the display of the object, they can tie a painting together. Frames are meant to complement the art, not overpower it. A lot of antique frames can be art pieces in and of themselves due to their ornate detailing and skill put in to make it.
5.) The artworks are labeled with a little square next to the art, it will say the name of the artist, the year, the medium, and sometimes a little synopsis about the painting. They will use a simple font, dark lettering on the light squares. Some of the little labels have frames of their own.
6.) The art in an average room of just paintings is placed about a foot away from one another, some have a painting lined up right above it, but usually, they are placed side to side. Some larger paintings have a whole wall of there own dedicated to it.
Step 4: Art Criticism Exercise
Artist: Gustave Courbet
Source of picture: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-calm-sea-gustave-courbet/7QHjU6AL_VtRjg
Title of work: The Calm Sea
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1869
Size: 59.7 x 73 cm
The painting is a bright landscape of a cloud-filled sky hovering over a teal blue sea. The principles used include the usage of patterns with the clouds, the clouds have the same shape mostly, closer to the sea the clouds are more white, as the eyes of the viewer go up the clouds get darker with patches of the blue sky peaking through. Courbet uses the principle of emphasis as the viewer’s eye is drawn to the washed-up brown boats on the shore. The elements used include the use of space, a lot of the painting is clouds, but the painting is separated into three parts, the sand, the sky, and the ocean. The element of color is used as the dark brown washed-up little boat is drawn to amongst the lighter sand. This work, in particular, is a landscape, it’s not hiding any sort of metaphor the water is still and not wave-filled there-fore it might be calm before a storm as the dark clouds may allude to that. The artist was trying to create a tranquil environment, you want to feel like you are on this beach looking forward into the water.
Artist: Édouard Manet
Source of picture: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/young-lady-in-1866/NgH72yNnF0VksA
Title of work: Young Lady in 1866
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1866
Size: w1286 x h1851 mm
This painting is a portrait of a woman, she is posing with her hand near her face, her light pink dress looks rather ill-fitting. She is positioned directly next to a gray parrot, the parrot is positioned on top of a wooden pole, at the base of this pole is a disheveled orange. Looking closer along with the silk dress, the woman’s other hand gently holds a monocle. The woman’s expression is shy, she stares past the dark canvas. Reading into this piece https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436964 the painting had been discovered as containing an allegory, the five senses are represented slyly in this painting, “the nosegay (smell), the orange (taste), the parrot-confidant (hearing), and the man’s monocle she fingers (sight and touch)”. Manet uses the principle of emphasis, he wants us to look at the tiny detail, the orange at the bottom of the canvas, the light monocle in her hand, and the pink dress against the dark background. The painting releases feminine energy, her gaze, the ribbon in her hair and around her neck, the silky dress, and the tiny bouquet in her hand. The element of the form is used on the wooden stand that the parrot rests on. You can see that the stand is meant to be three-dimensional with the value used. I believe Manet was trying to reveal an intimate atmosphere with this painting and successfully achieved it.
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Source of picture: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/young-woman-with-a-lute-johannes-vermeer-dutch-delft/hQGQjySKRct1jw
Title of work: Young Woman with a Lute
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1662-63
Size: 51.4 x 44.9 cm
Step 4: Art Criticism Exercise
Artist: Gustave Courbet
Source of picture: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-calm-sea-gustave-courbet/7QHjU6AL_VtRjg
Title of work: The Calm Sea
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1869
Size: 59.7 x 73 cm
The painting is a bright landscape of a cloud-filled sky hovering over a teal blue sea. The principles used include the usage of patterns with the clouds, the clouds have the same shape mostly, closer to the sea the clouds are more white, as the eyes of the viewer go up the clouds get darker with patches of the blue sky peaking through. Courbet uses the principle of emphasis as the viewer’s eye is drawn to the washed-up brown boats on the shore. The elements used include the use of space, a lot of the painting is clouds, but the painting is separated into three parts, the sand, the sky, and the ocean. The element of color is used as the dark brown washed-up little boat is drawn to amongst the lighter sand. This work, in particular, is a landscape, it’s not hiding any sort of metaphor the water is still and not wave-filled there-fore it might be calm before a storm as the dark clouds may allude to that. The artist was trying to create a tranquil environment, you want to feel like you are on this beach looking forward into the water.
Artist: Édouard Manet
Source of picture: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/young-lady-in-1866/NgH72yNnF0VksA
Title of work: Young Lady in 1866
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1866
Size: w1286 x h1851 mm
This painting is a portrait of a woman, she is posing with her hand near her face, her light pink dress looks rather ill-fitting. She is positioned directly next to a gray parrot, the parrot is positioned on top of a wooden pole, at the base of this pole is a disheveled orange. Looking closer along with the silk dress, the woman’s other hand gently holds a monocle. The woman’s expression is shy, she stares past the dark canvas. Reading into this piece https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436964 the painting had been discovered as containing an allegory, the five senses are represented slyly in this painting, “the nosegay (smell), the orange (taste), the parrot-confidant (hearing), and the man’s monocle she fingers (sight and touch)”. Manet uses the principle of emphasis, he wants us to look at the tiny detail, the orange at the bottom of the canvas, the light monocle in her hand, and the pink dress against the dark background. The painting releases feminine energy, her gaze, the ribbon in her hair and around her neck, the silky dress, and the tiny bouquet in her hand. The element of the form is used on the wooden stand that the parrot rests on. You can see that the stand is meant to be three-dimensional with the value used. I believe Manet was trying to reveal an intimate atmosphere with this painting and successfully achieved it.
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Source of picture: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/young-woman-with-a-lute-johannes-vermeer-dutch-delft/hQGQjySKRct1jw
Title of work: Young Woman with a Lute
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1662-63
Size: 51.4 x 44.9 cm
This painting showcases a woman as the main subject, she has fair skin, a gaze pointed out the window to her left, the room is dark with only a little light pouring in. The woman holds a lute, she appears to be playing it based on her fingering. The room has light walls and a large map covering a quarter of the painting. The element of value is used in this painting, the light leak on the window illuminates half of her face and only reaches a part of the room. The shadow on the wall from the blue curtain creates the principle of emphasis, the blue is the only recognizable color in the painting, the other colors are muddled together. The principle of variety is used lightly as there are different furniture pieces in the room, the map, the chair to her right, the table, the window, the curtain, and the lute she holds, even though there isn’t variety in the colors used there are different objects to look at, not just the young woman. The link https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437880 reveals that the woman is wealthy, as it was a regular thing that young, wealthy Dutch people studied music. Vermeer seems to just be showcasing normalcy with this painting, there doesn’t seem to be any hidden meanings.
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