Metropolitan Museum of Art: Seven Treasures To Discover On Its 151st Anniversary

Happy anniversary to The Met! In honour of the 151st anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art or long-standing home of the Met Gala, Google Doodle celebrates one of the largest art galleries of the world which houses over 2 million works of renowned artists.

History

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American businessmen as well as leading artists, who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to people. The Fifth Avenue building opened on February 20, 1872, at 681 Fifth Avenue and soon after acquired its first work of art which was a Roman sarcophagus.

Since then the Metropolitan Museum of Art dubbed as ‘The Met’ has come a long way and has become the home to many different cultures, time periods and artists. A sampling of the many works of art found at The Met today is depicted on Google Doodles as their top picks – here is a look at ours.

Seven Treasures

First let’s take a look at the Memorial Head (Nsodie) | 17th-mid-18th century

This sleek terracotta head is a memorial portrait (nsodie) of an Akan ruler from present-day southern Ghana or southeastern Cote d’Ivoire. The representation of the ruler is idealised as his face expression remains serene while his facial features are soft and delicate. In the mid 18th century, portraits of previous rulers were places with sculptures like this in a cemetery called asensie where they honoured the memory of their beloved rulers. As with the Egyptian pyramids, in different periods of times, these cemeteries were the focus of prayers and offerings as they believed in offering support even in the afterlife.

Water of the Flowery Mill | 1944 | Arshile Gorky

This colourful piece practically dancing off the canvas caught our eye, not because of its vibrant colours but it’s a homage to surrealism. Water of the Flowery Mill is part of a group of landscape-inspired works that Gorky produced during the last six years of his life. Gorky fled his home country Armenia twenty years prior to this painting but the images portrayed evokes the artist’s nostalgia for Armenia. His fluid interpretation of the flat landscape and overlapping fields of colour are influenced by ‘Abstract Expressionim’ which was a surrealism movement that emerged in the 1950s.

Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler) | 1887 | Vincent van Gogh

One of Van Gogh’s best-known piece makes the top of our list as the self-portrait is an image you can’t seem to take your eyes off. During his time in Paris, Van Gogh produces more than twenty self portraits, becoming his own best sitter: “I purposely bought a good enough mirror to work from myself, for want of a model.”

He demonstrated his incredible skill in this picture as the artist painted himself in reverse, demonstrating great awareness of the Neo-Impressionist technique.

“Tahmuras Defeats the Divs”, Folio 23v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp ca. 1525 | Abu’l Qasim Firdausi

This delicate piece depicts an elevated Tahmuras, who is galloping across the meadow and battling the demons who teach him the art of writing in exchange for their lives. Abu’l Qasim Firdausi dedicated this work to Sultan Muhammad who was the master behind the first generation of artists of this manuscript.

Terracotta lekythos (oil flask) | ca. 420 B.C. | Attributed to the Eretria Painter

A lekythos or oil flask that seems to have been a novelty for its time due to its unusual shape and division. When one thinks of ancient Greece, mythology and the Gods follow this train of thought. The lekythos is divided into three zones where the middle zone features Thetis and her sister Nereids bringing armour to replace the set that Achilles had given Patroklos. The lower zone depicts Theseus and Hippolyte in combat among Greeks and Amazons. Whereas the upper zone remains undetermined as it appears to be a chariot surrounded by men and women.

Young Lady in 1866 | Edouard Manet

The Modernist painter chooses his subject to be Victorine Meurent who had recently posed as the brazen nudes in Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass (both Musée d’Orsay, Paris) and in this particular image she appears quite modest, wearing a delicate silk dress gown. Recent scholars have interpreted it as an allegory of the five senses: the nosegay (smell), the orange (taste), the parrot-confidant (hearing), and the man’s monocle she fingers (sight and touch) but like many great artists Manet was heavily criticized at the time as sceptics viewed the painting as Manet failing to “value a head more than a slipper.”

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga | 1787-88 | Goya

The Spanish romantic painter depicts the son of the Count and Countess of Altamira who is shown between a cage of finches and three wide-eyed cats who appear captivated by the boy’s pet magpie. The boy is wearing a vibrant red costume whereas his pet is holding Goya’s calling card and signature. The magpie is generally seen as an ill-omen but It appears that Goya separates the innocent world of the child from the forces of evil as the animals perhaps forebode a tragedy about to occur. Manuel died only a few years after his portrait was painted, at the age of eight.