Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Let New York city car rentals whisk you to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where you can soak in a world of culture. The Met, for short, is one of the worlds largest art museums. New York city car rentals say there’s an extremely large Egyptian exhibit in which you can walk through a real tomb. You can see how the Egyptians made their famous makeup, and discover some of the beautiful artifacts found in ancient Egyptian burial shrouds.

Another exhibit is the Homes and Cultures exhibit, in which you walk through life-size rooms and homes from the colonial era. If you’re into fashion, you’ll want to catch this Clothes and Costumes exhibit. You’ll find an extremely large collection of period clothing, dating all the way back to the 1600’s until today (even Madonna’s famous cone-bra is on display here).

Quick facts:

  • The Met opened February 20, 1872
  • Founding Superintendent was publisher George Palmer Putnam
  • James J. Rorimer was director from 1955 to his death May 11, 1966
  • Thomas Hoving succeeded as director from March 17, 1967 to June 30, 1977
  • Phillipe de Montebello is the current director

Its massive collection covers a 5000-year span and contains items such as:

  • Classical Antiquity treasures like Greek galleries and Cypriot galleries
  • An extensive collection of American art
  • Extensive holdings in Egyptian including the Temple of Dendur African, Asian, Oceanic, Middle Eastern, Byzantine and Islamic art
  • Recreations of notable interiors
  • European masters, including Botticelli, Breugel, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, El Greco, Manet, Monet, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Gogh, Velazquez and Vermeer
  • African, Chinese and Japanese art exhibits
  • Collection of antique weapons and armor from mostly Europe, but also United States, Middle East, and Japan

Interesting fact about the Met

New York city car rentals ask if you knew that one of The Met’s latest purchases and the most expensive piece of art is Duccio’s Madonna and Child. The museum paid more than 45 million dollars. The painting is only 8 x 11 inches.

About the building

Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould designed the original Metropolitan Museum of Art was a gothic-style brick building. Critics were not kind when the Museum opened in Central Park in 1880. New York city car rentals note that they described the Met as “a cross between a train station and a packing house.

Since then, the Museum has grown and now covers 13 acres. With the many additions around the Museum, not much of the original structure can be seen today. You might be able to see a part of the original buildings brick wall in the Lehman Wing. Architects expanded the Museum in a classical style.

Something to try out

New York city car rentals suggest you:

  1. Walk north the length of the building before entering the Met.
  2. When you reach the end of the building, take the first path west into the Park past the slanted glass wall of the Temple of Dendur.

Depending on when you walk here, you’ll discover a beautiful surprise:

  • In full daylight, the clear glass panels reflect back on the Park, like a giant mirrored mosaic
  • In a dark sky, the Temple, illuminated inside, looks like it has an inner light

If you keep circling around the Museum, go to the left, youll find the Obelisk on the right side, beside the Greywacke Arch. Take another left turn and go past the Pat Hoffman Friedman Playground at East 79th Street,  you will find a cast of Paul Manship’s sculpture “Group of Bears”.