During my trip to New York City I spent my day observing the treasures of history at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At first walking into a big museum seemed daunting, I almost became nervous witnessing the huge amount of people that were among me. Different parts of the museum were dedicated to different cultures and everywhere I walked there was always something new to encounter which I didn’t see before. I spent my time divided among the American Wing, Arms and Amor, Greek and Roman art, and Egyptian art exhibits. Although each exhibit was very interesting and showed remarkable richness in culture and history, watching the past come alive in front of me showed this was much more than an art museum.
The first exhibit I was faced with was the Greek and Roman art, which was surrounded by a bright white pillars and natural light. The security told me to either wear my backpack backwards or hold it on the side, which I instantly disregarded when I saw others ignoring this when they passed the security. As I walked around I mostly saw various marble statues and basins which displayed the amount craftsmanship and skill in Greek and Rome. One thing I observed were the statues constant theme of nudity, which can be associated with themes of masculinity, strength, and beauty. An instance where I encountered this was with the marble statue of a youthful Hercules made in Rome during the flavian period A.D 68-69, the statue showed a Hercules with muscles and modest abdominal muscles and his penis exposed. This displayed the idea of power and the strength of a demi god in my opinion. Another case of this was displayed through a roman imperial statue of Aphrodite in the 1st or 2nd century. According to the description the statue originally had Aphrodite extending her arms to shield her breasts and pubic region, creating a both modest and sexual image for the goddess of love. When I witnessed the statue though Aphrodite’s hands were not present and possibly may have underwent through damage, in addition the nose and upper lip were eroded and made the face flat. One of my favorite objects I saw was the marble statue of a lion from Greek, Cycladic 400-390 B.C, due to how huge and detailed oriented the statue was. The Lion was positioned as if it were ready to pounce on any given moment, in addition details such as wide-open mouth and the fangs pronounced the fear the creature was supposed to instill into people of the time. According to the description marble statues of lions were utilized as tomb monuments and guardians, hence why the lion has such an intimidating look and presence. Another object I appreciated was the Marble column from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis (Greek, Hellenistic, 300 B.C), due to the massive size and space it took up in the museum. The intricate designs engraved on the column displayed how truly advanced the Greek civilization was, also the huge size and architectural supportability most definitely influenced how we design and create buildings today.
The next exhibit I encountered was the Arms and Armor, which featured weaponry and armor from various places such as Japan, India, and Europe. In my surroundings I see in the middle of the room three armored knights on armored horses occupied the space. This was called Armor for Man and Horse (Kunz Lochner, German, Nuremburg 1510-1567) Kunz a notable armor supplier, who sold to clients the likes of the holy roman emperor, king of England, and duke of Saxony. As I observed my surroundings I witnessed very typical shiny medieval armor in glass cases placed next to helms, masks, spears, guns, saddles, and swords. One mask that drew my attention was the Mask in the Shape of a Mountain Demon’s Face (edo period, early 18th century), this was a samurai mask intended to show a sign of skill and give those who wear it the appearance of a demon. This mask had a long pointy nose, with wrinkles engraved on the forehead and eyebrows that spiraled into a frown. I could see the masks purpose was to intimidate the enemy of the wearer, personally this is the reason I like the mask due to matter of pretending to be a demon and killing people would send my enemies running and cowering with fear.