Nowadays it is difficult to find a person who is not interested in arts at least as an amateur. Everybody chooses a kind of art according to his or her taste and preferences. Somebody gets real pleasure from ballet or cinema and the other adores visual art or architecture. In any case, each kind of art has its peculiarities and zest. In every country, there are a lot of different museums and art galleries which attract a great number of real art connoisseurs and simple amateurs. Due to such museums and galleries, people can know many interesting historical facts and men of the moment, who had a great influence on the world of art. Metropolitan Museum belongs to those public places which attract thousands of visitors every day.
Metropolitan Museum is one of the most famous and the richest art galleries located in New York. It possesses an eternal collection, which comprises more than two million pieces of art. It is a real paradise not only for simple visitors and amateurs but also for those who deal with art studying professionally. “Represented in the constant collection are pieces of art from classical old relic and Egypt” (Hoving p. 56). The visitors are welcome to see different paintings and sculptures of famous European masters and huge collections of modern art.
The exhibition is presented with a great number of masterpieces. The visitors can see the famous The Actor by Picasso. The canvas belongs to the so-called blue period of Picasso’s oeuvre. The artist presents the image of a young and handsome actor and visitors may see and feel his emotions during the performance on the stage. Another interesting piece of work is Standing Attendant, a Chinese sculpture belonging to the 7-the century. This sculpture of a stranger shows the international and worldwide spirit of the departed inhabitant in the furnished grave. It is the representative of the famous Tang dynasty and his adornments falling from his belt, together with other traits of his dress that are dissimilar from usual Chinese clothing. One more sculpture that is worth discussing is Hatshepsut, dated 1458 b.c Hatshepsut, the well-known female ruler of Egypt. This sculpture makes the visitors plunge into the atmosphere of ancient Egypt. This full-size statue demonstrates the ruler in the traditional clothing of all Egyptian monarchs, conventionally a role of man. Despite the fact that the dress is male, this statue has distinctly female features, unlike the majority of other representatives of this dynasty. Moreover, the most stunning architectural attainment of the antique world, was that Hatshepsut’s sanctuary was adorned with a great number of statues depicting her as a sphinx and as Osiris, famous god of the spirit world. The samples of ancient architecture have always been the objects of interest. For example, the Two Columns from the Church of Notre- Dame de la Daurade. The columns, together with another twenty columns are the parts of “Golden Church” of La Daurade. It is an extremely beautiful church that is famous for its gold mosaics. The columns are covered with a beautiful ornament that gives a clear understanding of architectural tendencies of those times.
Needless to say that visiting such places as Metropolitan Museum is the best way to become familiar with art and get acquainted with famous historical masterpieces.
Works Cited
Hoving, Thomas. Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Michigan: Simon & Schuster, 1993