Catholic Art for my Lenten meditation. After a long weekend of conference time, I decided to visit MoMA (The Metropolitan Museum of Arts) or The Met and here are my pictures as promised.
So after a grueling weekend and the amazing four day conference, I was quite wiped out. Most of you saw my Facebook photos where I spent much of the afternoon on Sunday searching for a church with an evening mass near W 36th Street until I found St. Francis of Assisi.
On Monday, I woke up early and after morning mass, headed out to visit MoMA. I booked my tickets online and strongly suggest it. The lines for tickets are long. The ticket is valid for three days where you can use it to see the cloisters and another site.
Taking the 4 train and getting off 86th street, I got to the Museum Mile. It’s a beautiful walk and if it’s not too crowded, quite pleasant.
Ground Floor of MoMA
The ground floor of the MoMA has Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Indian and all sorts of art. I started with Egypt after I saw the Sphinx and all the archaeological finds. Needless to say, I got quite excited. 😆
Catholic Art
Then I reminded myself, I was here to see Catholic Art. This was supposed to be part of my Lenten meditation. So, I got a map and went in search of the European paintings. So the second floor has an entire section on European paintings. Each is divided according to time period. 19th and 20 th century paintings and prior work.
I’m going to share artwork that I liked. There are dozens of paintings of the Madonna and Jesus, of the Annunciation, of the Crucifixion and various Biblical scenes and the Passion. I picked the ones I liked best, the ones that spoke to me. And I hope you like them. The lighting is just too bright, so there’s some haze. Honestly, I could just get the best pictures of paintings that were at my eye level. I guess height does matter. 😉
Monday was also the Feast of the Annunciation, so seeing some of these paintings were apt for the day.
I’m not sure if you can tell but St. Catherine’s hair has pearls and jewelry that suggests she came from a rich family. John the Baptist, is wearing sheepskin and is accompanied by a lamb in Boucher’s beautiful painting. It simply captures the innocence of the two children. And it can’t help but make you think both Jesus and John were so human.
Passion of Jesus
Catholic art fills rooms of the gallery here. There were so many paintings with a dying Jesus and if you look closely, the artists have captured the grief, the pallor and the pain vividly. It’s very moving. And the anatomy!!! It’s so very true to human form.
Emmaus
Velasquez painted this as the moment, the men recognize Jesus at Emmaus. It’s similar in style and life like detail to a Carvaggio but lighter. In fact, there’s this brilliant light around Jesus that makes it absolutely surreal. I actually moved all around this painting, much to other patrons’ annoyance. I thought the light affected the painting, but the artist has managed to give Him this brilliance. It’s amazing! 😇
Catholic Art: Saints
Apart from the focus on the holy family, Madonna and Jesus, plenty of Catholic art features saints. They’re either in ecstasy or there are moments of their life that are captured with either their main charism or ministry.
The child with St. Margaret is her illegitimate son. I had assumed he was a girl but there’s so much happening in the painting. Satan is juxtaposed in the background opposite the angel. The last painting of a Penitent Mary Magdalene just blew me over. There’s something about this that just gets to me. You can’t see her face in the mirror, but she’s holding a skull, jewelry scattered on the floor where she ignores vanity! I clicked ten different pictures of this painting and I don’t know why. Maybe because when I look at a penitent Mary Magdalene, I remember the Samaritan woman at the well.
Catholic art: Sculpture
There are plenty of sculptures and I didn’t have the time to cover it all. So, I just clicked a few pictures that were close to the European paintings.
Other Paintings
Broken eggs is a metaphorical painting where the eggs represent virginity and it makes the whole scene poignant. As far as the Breton brother and sister painting, I have to admit that for someone who’s favorite book is The Mill on the Floss, I can’t help but love this painting. The three sisters just got me because of the color. The vivid red is such a splash that it stood out in the room even though the girls are doing something so mundane, cleaning potatoes.
More Favorites
The Massacre of the innocents is a painful painting and the dead child is haunting. It’s a painting in the corner that just makes you sad. As far as the weeders are concerned, this reminded me so much about a poem by William Wordsworth. I read Wordsworth’s Solitary Reaper in the seventh grade. That poem has stayed with me and I always wondered why the man didn’t stop and speak to the reaper. This painting reminded me so much of that. And that one nostalgic weeder in the corner could very well be like that reaper. 🤨 I know it’s a stretch, but that’s my imagination!!!
Dutch Arts
The Met has a special exhibition of all Dutch paintings. So the Rembrandt’s and the Vermeer’s were all downstairs. Here are a few.
Vermeer’s paintings are a reflection of daily life. So I’m not sure what was so very special since I’m not very “artsy.” Corot was French and I preferred some of his work including the sad, pensive, Letter you see above.
Classics
Of all the classics, I found the Renoir’s very blurred. Maybe you can tell from the image. Van Gough’s painting all have these semi-circular brushstrokes that give it different textures. The Monet’s are all very layered and there are several that are so beautiful! Lavoisier discovered the structure of water but was guillotined later. Picasso’s seemed weird and Talleyrand is an enigma. I’ve read so much about Talleyrand that I wanted to know who was this amazing diplomat and what he looked like.
Art from other cultures
There’s so much among the Chinese and Japanese exhibits. I managed to quickly glimpse at a few. I clicked a few pictures.
Food
By the end I was tired and stopped by the cafeteria. And here’s my food.
My feet were aching by the time I covered European paintings. I still couldn’t see the Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Indian, and Arab art. There were other things too, Native Indian and American art.
Reflections
By five in the evening, the Museum closed and everyone gathered outside on the stairs. I sat down too, just for some rest before heading back home. It was a pretty neat day and I loved every moment of it. If you haven’t been here, you should. There’s so much Catholic art that’s good for reflection. It brings the biblical scenes to life. The NYBG is my next Lenten meditation.