The Cloisters Museum of Medieval Art

Video Title :	The Cloisters Museum of Medieval Art
Description :	This uptown branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is worth the 45-minute subway ride from midtown (plus a pleasant 10-minute walk through Fort Tryon Park.) Perched on the tip of Manhattan, on four acres overlooking the Hudson River, the castle-like Museum is comprised of five Medieval cloisters imported from France and filled with art and artifacts. It is the largest single collection of medieval art and artifacts in the United States. The Cloisters, as described by Germain Bazin, former director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, "the crowning achievement of American museology," is devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. The Museum building itself incorporates portions of original medieval chapels, monastic cloisters, a chapter house, and other architectural elements dating from the 12th through 15th centuries. Perhaps the most celebrated attractions are The Unicorn Tapestries, a group of seven wall hangings that vividly portray the mythological hunt and capture of a unicorn. Other gallery objects include religious sculptures, water vessels shaped like animals, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass and ivories. Approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about A.D. 800 with particular emphasis on the twelfth through fifteenth centuries, are exhibited in this unique museum. Many visitors come for the building itself: one room recreates a 12th-century chapel, The Fuentiduena Chapel, and another, the Chapter House (from Notre-Dame-De-Pontaut). The chapter house was so named because the monks would sit and listen to one monk read one chapter aloud from the monastic rule book. All of the business of the monastery and even group confession also took place in the chapter house. The monastery gardens are as breathtaking as the vistas overlooking the Hudson. The herb garden in the Bonnefont Cloister contains more than 250 species of plants which were grown during the Middle Ages. Its design is typical of a medieval monastery garden plan, but no attempt was made to replicate any one monastic garden in particular. Some kind of ceremonies or rituals accompany the picking of herbs. Some herbs were to be picked at sunrise, while looking towards the east, in silence, or without looking behind oneself. Many of these herbs are associated with love, others used for cooking and seasoning, and still others for artistic purposes. A tour of this place truly imparts a feeling of being in another time.
Views :	1431
Rating :	4.83
Keywords, Tags :	Cloisters Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City Manhattan Medieval Architecture
Video Length :	10 : 37

Comments :

I was just there 2 weeks ago on a field trip. I saw the unicorn tapestries, and now... unicorns rock my sox! jk It was honestly a very nice museum. I really enjoyed it. especially the cloisters themselves.

It is a lovely video, however I am missing the world-famous Unicorn tapestries from it. In the middle ages, when films, TV, even a simple black and white printed picture was not available, tapestry played the role of the films. Tapestries were huge, like wall-paintings (fresco) but could be transported easily, as a textile. Many people worked on tapestries, even tapestry making "cities" were founded e.g. in Paris, like Hollywood for film making. Be proud of your Unicorn tapestries!

There was some stuff last year (or the year before)that was supposedly stolen that was in the MET that they had to give back to Italy. Curators buy what they can for as little as possible...back before they could track these articles there was a lot more stolen pieces of art landing in a lot of museums. Its less prevalent now, I think.

i'm sure she didnt, neither did I.

I don´t know if you knew that mos of the collection of the cloisters museum as well as the MET are stolen, robbed or cheated works of art. you should be proud ot it

actually they werent stolen, there were taken from abandened monestaries in the 19th century by an artist that was interested in midevil art. Its not stolen if was no longer owned by anyone and left to rot and be unappreciated.

actually they were bought at an insignificant price in the boundaries of legality. it was a proper expolium. and I can tell you that some of them were indeed stolen. just find out what happened with the grill of the cathedral of valladolid, whixh is now in the MET. or tiepolo's cartoons for the royal palace of madrid, which I can tell you was not rot at all.