The Metropolitan Museum of Art: America's Largest Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (also called "the Met") is America's largest art museum. It is also one of the four major museums in the world (the others are France's Louvre Museum, Britain's British Museum, and Russia's Hermitage Museum). This great art building stands next to Central Park. It holds 3 million precious artworks from different civilizations.

Development Art History

In 1866, John Jay, an American lawyer, announced in Paris that America needed its own art museum. In 1870, a group of bankers, businessmen, and artists started the idea of building the museum. On April 13 of the same year, they passed The Metropolitan Museum of Art Charter.

On February 20, 1872, the museum opened to the public in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue. On March 30, 1880, its current location—at 82nd Street on Fifth Avenue, next to Central Park—opened for the first time.

In the 1970s, when the museum turned 100 years old, it set its position as an encyclopedic museum (a museum that covers many kinds of knowledge and art).

The museum’s core mission has always been "to connect people with creativity, knowledge, and each other through art". It collects, studies, and shows artworks non-stop to break the limits of culture and time.

For example, New York City residents can enjoy the "pay-what-you-wish" ticket policy. The museum also offers digital guide resources to people around the world. These things all show its goal of "art for everyone".

Building Layout

The Metropolitan Museum of Art covers an area of 130,000 square meters. It has two main parts: The Met Fifth Avenue (the main building) and The Met Cloisters.

· The Met Fifth Avenue: Workers started to build it in 1880. Architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Ray Mould designed its original Russian Gothic style structure. Later, people expanded it many times to make it as big as it is today.

· The Met Cloisters: It opened to the public in 1938. It sits in Fort Tryon Park in New York City. It mainly shows medieval art and architecture.

Collection Situation

The museum has 3 million artworks. These works of art cover over 5,000 years of art from all over the world. The organizers divide them into 19 exhibition departments. These departments include:

· Art from ancient times and ancient Egypt

· Paintings and sculptures by almost all great European artists from the past

· A lot of American art and modern art

· Art from Africa, Asia, and Oceania

· The most complete collection of medieval, Byzantine, and Islamic art

Floor 1: The Center for Ancient Civilizations

Floor 1 focuses on showing ancient civilizations. It has precious artworks from the Nile River area to the Mesopotamian Plain.

· Ancient Egyptian Art Department (Galleries 100-138): This is where the museum staff keep its most valuable treasures.

· Medieval Art Department (Galleries 300-307): It holds stained glass and sculptures from 300 AD to 1500 AD.

· Robert Lehman Collection (Galleries 950-965): People call it a "museum within a museum". It has precious paintings by great European artists from the 14th to the 20th century.

Floor 2: The Mix of Different Civilizations

Floor 2 shows the mix of different civilizations. It has artworks from:

· Ancient Near Eastern Art Department (Gallery 401)

· Asian art collections

· The Damascus Room (Gallery 130)

All these works stand out together on this floor.

Floor 3: The American Wing

The American Wing takes up the whole third floor. It has 75 galleries and holds 20,000 North American artworks. These works clearly show the cultural changes in North America from the colonial period to the 20th century.

The Met Cloisters

The Met Cloisters is a separate building for medieval visual art. It sits in Fort Tryon Park. Its collections include religious artworks from 300 AD to 1500 AD.

There are stained glass, Gothic sculptures, and even a full copy of a medieval chapel. When you visit it, you will feel like you are back in the spiritual world of medieval Europe. It is open from Thursday to Tuesday, and you can experience a quiet art atmosphere different from the main building.

Famous Collection Artworks

1. Medicine Buddha Altarpiece Mural

This mural comes from the Guang Sheng Temple in Hongtong County, Shanxi Province, China. Craftsmen made it during the Yuan Dynasty. The mural is 15.12 meters long and 7.518 meters high at its tallest part.

In the center of the mural is the Medicine Buddha. On his left and right are the Sunlight Bodhisattva and the Moonlight Bodhisattva—they form the "Three Holy Ones of Medicine". Around them, there are also "Eight Guiding Bodhisattvas" and other figures.

In 1929, the temple became run-down. After monks discussed with local officials and gentlemen, they cut the mural into pieces and sold it. Later, people passed the mural around many times, and Arthur M. Sackler finally bought it. In 1964, he donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in his mother’s name.

2. Egyptian Temple of Dendur

Workers built this temple around 15 BC and finished it in 10 BC. Ancient Egyptians used it to worship the Nile River god.

In 1963, Egypt built the Aswan High Dam. To protect the temple, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) planned a rescue project. 51 countries joined this project. The United States helped rebuild the Abu Simbel Temples, so Egypt gave the Temple of Dendur to the US.

In 1978, the temple opened to the public in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is the largest complete Egyptian temple outside Egypt and the only one in the Western Hemisphere.

3. Murals from a Roman Villa

People found these murals in the villa of P. Fannius Synistor in Boscoreale, Italy. Artists made them around 50 BC to 40 BC. The Rogers Fund donated them to the museum in 1903.

The room with the murals is 5.83 meters long and 3.34 meters wide. The murals are 2.65 meters high. They show scenes of life at that time. These murals have high artistic tradition and historical value.