Limited Access Visit #4: the Met

Sometimes I get these ideas in my head. September 12th the idea I had was to visit every single gallery and exhibit currently open at the reopened Met. And while it took me four and a half hours, I did it. And I saw plenty of things I had never ever seen in there before.

I started with all the Greek and Roman stuff in the South Wing.

Greece and Rome were interrupted when I came across an exhibit of art from the “Shores of the Sahara.”

Okay, back to Greece and Rome:

There are SO many lions eating other animals or people in the Met

After Jesus, I think Hercules has to be the most popular male subject in art.

This is Hercules, too.

This is not.

Then I went into the South Pacific section that I like so much and it seems I didn’t take any pictures because I’ve taken so many in there before. From there I went over to African, Central American and South American art.

Then the modern art

Then up to the contemporary art

Then: 19th and early 20th century European painting and sculpture

There was this special exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Met with lots of the big hits on display as part of it. Plus stuff I hadn’t seen before.

but…is it art?

Next: “Art of the Arab Lands”

Crossed over the Great Hall (don’t worry, I checked both sides)

And then on to the Asian art, the great majority of which I do not believe I had seen before.

A gigantic time (and strength) saver: the whole European paintings 1250-1800 section was closed for renovations. Probably saved myself an hour and a half there.

Back down to 1 for European Sculpture, Medieval Art, Rooms, and Armor

(Hercules)

Upstairs to the musical instruments section…never been to this before I’m sure, also, not pictured but they’re hiding the Organ Rehearsal in this section these days.

From there I conquered the Americas

this one is titled “new husband buys the groceries for the first time” or something like that

iphone?

the terrifying tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The archives…

Stumbled upon this room-sized painting of the grounds of Versailles no one ever told me about

Next: a painting of otters and the American wing sculpture court

Some more European decorative arts it seems…

The central sculpture court, maybe my favorite section of the whole museum

Then up to the roof to admire the Lattice Detour and the park and city.

Back down to 1 to pick up some last few Europe galleries and back through Rome/Greece on my way to…

Egypt! Don’t think I was going to miss Egypt!

And that was it! Now please don’t be like: Oh yeah, what about the Lehmann Gallery or the photography galleries or all the mezzanines? Because I did not miss them! I lost either photo taking steam or photo posting steam, but do not worry, I promise I saw it all. I would not let you down!

And oh yeah, Covid-times report on attending the Met: I had a reservation, but I don’t think they’re required. The Met is so big I think they figure they can just let people in and it probably won’t be a big deal. It was fairly empty when I got there at 10’ish AM but seemed kind of normal levels of busy by the time I left. Then again, I was there on a Saturday. Weekday mornings are probably real nice.

Oh and as a museum, Met is world class. League of its own. It’s got it all.