A Trip to the MET

BY TARA BURKE

The other day we spent a rainy afternoon in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a great museum that houses artifacts from all over the world, paintings from renown artists, costumes, instruments and so much more spanning over centuries of history.

Many people don’t realize, but The Met is pay what you wish all the time, so if you live in the city or have the time during your travels I’d break it into multiple visits. It’s too big to see in one day without burning out, but if you pay what you wish you won’t feel pressured to see it all at once.

This time we decided on doing the entire American wing which features furniture, tableware, paintings, artifacts and more from all over the Americas. We also went through the Egyptian wing on our way to the American wing. It was in the Egyptian wing that I snagged a photo of this hippo, which is made out of this beautiful colored faience. This material was very typical in a lot of Egyptian figurines. Many of the artifacts from the Egyptian era were found in tombs as was this hippo.

Before getting to the American wing we took a look at The Temple of Dendur. The temple was gifted to the United States by the Egyptian government in 1965. The Temple of Dendur resides in The Sackler Wing. The architects behind the location created the space with the intention of it mimicking its original location by the Nile River. The space is in itself is really beautiful. Another thing that’s super interesting about the The Temple of Dendur is that it has graffiti… 19th century graffiti that is. Years ago many visitors, usually coming from Europe, inscribed the temple walls with their names and year.

After that we took in all of the American Wing. We fell upon these vases that just happened to have Elysian Fields and Governors Island on them. We thought that was pretty cool since we’re always in Hoboken and love Governors Island so we could recognize the landscapes even though they were from a different time period.