Time Travel

The Cloisters from the Western Terrace

The Cuxa Cloister

The Rabbit in the Unicorn Tapestries

The Unicorn in Captivity

(all of the above taken without flash by my phone; every time I take a picture, I remember the ad, "If it rings, it's not a camera.  I'll see if Mama will upload her pics from her fancy camera!)


Yesterday we traveled through time and space via The Cloisters, the medieval art branch of the Met, in northern Manhattan.  Mama and I hadn't been in years, the kids never, but we were drawn by the exhibition of the famed Lewis Chessmen.

Better known as the inspiration of the set Ron and Harry play in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Sis and Bud had a great time admiring the intricate walrus ivory pieces, with their unique details.  The kids even drew their favorite pieces.  We learned a lot about chess, from its origins in 6th-century India where elephants were main pieces--these later became bishops when the game moved into Western Europe; how Rooks/Castles replaced Warders, and the subset Beserkers, who are often show biting their shields; how rules change--the King used to be able to move 4 squares in his opening and the Queen could initially jump other pieces; how ivory chess pieces were made in Trondheim, Norway, in the 11-12th centuries and moved West through trade to Scotland, where this horde was found in the early 19th-century--the man who first dug them up thought they were elves!

The kids continued to draw throughout the museum, with Mama's guidance in forming shapes and sketching--a wall painting of a lion, an archway, a crucifix, and stained glass windows, enjoying how much the whole place felt like a medieval castle.  We even went outside in the damp fog to take in the view of the Hudson from the Western Terrace.  We could enjoy the "ramparts" of the museum but could only barely see the outline of the massive George Washington Bridge (GWB).  The other outdoor spaces--the two cloisters filled with plants--were closed for the winter, but I still enjoyed sitting in the Cuxa Cloister, with the scent of potted hyacinths and rosemary, plus citrus and olive trees.

Bud was bothered by the tomb effigies, even after we explained that the skeletons were long gone.  He just couldn't appreciate the chain mail and shields while thinking of them as tombs. We did notice, however, that most of the sepulchres had dogs at the feet of the departed; one elaborate tomb also sat on lions and a sheep, with a bunny nearby.  We also marveled at the extensive damage to one sculpture's face due to touching over time--dark, shiny, and lacking detailed compared to the face of the sculpture out of reach.

Sis liked the Unicorn Tapestries (and here), particularly because of the rabbit in one of them.  We listened to a visiting art history prof give an awful, incoherent, and incorrect explanation of the tapestries to his class of bored college students; when he left, I told the kids all the other interpretations of the works of art.  "Bad" or lazy or simplistic art history--especially because in this case he provided a rigid religious interpretation, ignoring the two tapestries that didn't fit (which scholars believe belong to a secular metaphor of the unicorn as lover), and then discounting a question by a student about other unicorn tapestries, which he'd never heard of (in Cluny!  See the novel The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracey Chevalier)--drives me nuts (like DaVinci Code).  They especially liked the unicorn's horn (actually a narwhal tusk) on view.  We also spent some time admiring The Merode Altarpiece, with Mama and I plumbing the depths of Art 101 for all the symbolism in the detailed piece.  Sis liked the baby Jesus flying to Mary on the mini-cross!  We also examined more than one Lamentation and Pieta, giving us a chance to review the Easter story with the kids.

But that's next weekend!