On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
ema
Remember the bad juju that accosted me on 5th Ave. right in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on my last visit? (OTR post)
Apparently, it’s now relocated inside the museum, in the Temple of Dendur area, dead-set (heh, I said dead!) to thwart my attempts to film in that room. Last time they were setting up for the Met Gala, this time they were preparing the room for a private party. Coincidence? I think not.
My plan for this trip was to breeze through the small Egyptian art section not explored on my last visit, then head straight to Arms and Armor, followed by the Asian art section.
After five lovely hours, I had managed to see about three Arms and Armor rooms and none of the Asian art ones. That’s partly because I took an unplanned detour through the American Wing, and partly because I spent an inordinate amount of time gawking at the armor displays I did manage to visit.
Everything in that section was beautiful, true works of art, but what puzzles me is, once people suited up, then what? Forget fighting, how did they walk, sit, stand, bend, or even turn with all that hardware on? I need to go back and dedicate a full visit to the Arms and Armor section. Maybe if I spend more time staring at the displays I’ll figure it out.
For today, let’s admire some Egyptian and American art, and imagine what it would’ve been like to ride off into the sunset all suited up in a ton of beautiful armor.
(all the clips are only a few seconds; full tour is 15:55 min)


(clip)



Overall, the American Wing (7:30 min full tour) did not impress. Most of it was dimly lit, it had mostly furniture displays, and that’s about it.
I am not an art connoisseur, so maybe furniture is what American art is known for, but between the poor lighting and the tons of chairs – what is it with all the chairs? – it was a bit of a let down, especially when compared to the other sections.

(clip)

This is the atrium in front of the Arms and Armor section.

Small section of the Arms and Armor full tour (2:34 min).

(clip)
eclare
I can’t imagine a museum that gargantuan.
raven
awesome
Baud
Home of the La-Z-Boy.
p.a
It’s a great place, but I never grab the map and check off my route. “Uhhh… we’ve been through this, haven’t we?” “Well I remember some of the Impressionist stuff, but not this room…”
Betty
Pity the horses that had to carry those armored guys around. Beautiful metalwork though.
Trivia Man
Thank you.
when we lived in NJ we were so excited for the NYC museums, bought membership at the Met and MOMA. But her health declined and it was too difficult for her and we went very sparingly. I could have go e alone, we were less than an hour by train, but i could tell even the idea if me going without her was en extra disappointment to her in a very difficult part if her life. So we only went together.
One perk we found out too late had to do with the Met. She a specialist doctor very close to the Met and parking was always a major expense and hassle. Turns out we could have used our membership to use the parking there and then walked to the appointment. But for Reasons, she resisted getting a handicap parking permit until later so we struggled with pay lots. Woulda coulda.
MattF
Was Madame X at home? She’s sometimes away from home, visiting other places. I always look for her when I’m at the Metropolitan.
ema
Thank you all!
ema
@Betty:
You should see the armor the poor horses were covered in. I’ll submit a part two from Arms & Armor, it’s a really great area.
ema
@MattF:
Stay tuned as I only covered the 1st floor on this visit.
Matt McIrvin
I was in New York a few weeks ago and visited the Guggenheim for the first time–it was the most major NYC museum I hadn’t already been to. Striking place, more famous for the Frank Lloyd Wright building’s architecture than anything else–there was an exhibit on about the Orphism movement in early 20th century Paris, spiraling chronologically up the multi-story helical ramp that is the main exhibit hall, and a side exhibit on Mondrian.
Matt McIrvin
@Trivia Man: The top floor of MoMA is overwhelming–everyone flocks to Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, but you go room to room and every single room has multiple pieces that are incredibly famous: Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, Magritte’s “The Lovers”, Henri Rousseau’s “The Dream”, Mondrian’s “Broadway Boogie-Woogie”… it just goes on and on.
Trivia Man
@Matt McIrvin: we went about 3 times, always had an incredible special exhibit. I could have gone at least monthly if it was up to me. The Met probably monthly as well. Ask me again after i go more than 5 times, but it was still amazing each time.
Torrey
About arms and armor: I’m no expert, but there are a couple of interesting YouTube clips about such things. Here’s one, in which the additional window shows someone in full armor swinging himself(?) over a hurdle, and some commentary about different roles in battle and who would and would not be wearing full armor. Here’s another, showing men in full armor demonstrating their gymnastic skills.
Anyway, for what it’s worth.
ETA: thank you for the wonderful pictures! I really appreciated both your earlier tour and this one.
JAM
I imagine most of that armor was more ceremonial or managerial in that the men who wore it were surrounded by protectors and weren’t supposed to need to fight themselves.. This reminds me of a favorite book from childhood From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The runaway kids in the book would sleep in the furniture displays.
NutmegAgain
When I was a kid I went to the Met each Saturday for (basically) Western Culture lessons. OK, it was the early ’60s, so weird. We must have gotten there early, since my friend and I had extra time to explore. I had favorite parts of the Egyptian areas (now totally changed). We also had lunch in the now sadly gone lunch room, which had a central pool with fountains. As far as the ginormous chair collections, I remember some upper floor with (seemingly) miles of unstaged furniture of all kinds, just row after row. These were not the period rooms.I wonder if that is still there, or accessible? I’d love to hear from someone who knows.
ema
@Torrey:
Thank you for the clips, very interesting. They copy the tailoring quite well but not the materials. None of the armor I saw was that flimsy. Next visit I will try to get some shots showing the thickness of the armor.
ema
@NutmegAgain:
I’ve only covered the first floor for now. Once I get to the upper floors I’ll let you know if I see something like what you are describing.
No Nym
Wow, that was a mesmerizing video. Thank you. I saw so many things I remembered from when I was there and so many things I haven’t seen yet! I think I might need to make a spring run to NYC.
Sister Golden Bear
BTW, I also got a binaural Sennheiser AMBEO Smart Headset mic for my run-and-go iPhone video set-up — at the time it was something like $50 on eBay, though I see the price is back up to $300 now. Does a nice job, especially when in paces where I don’t want an obvious mic attached to the iPhone. I especially like that it records in stereo, which adds a bit of “depth” to the audio since you can hear sounds moving around.
It’s been years since I’ve been to the Met, and while impressive overall, I agree the American Wing was mostly meh.