The Cloisters Museum
Day 15
Today was probably the worst day in sightseeing history.
Destination: The Cloisters Museum. A branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which offers an extensive medieval collection of statues, paintings, stained glass windows, tapestries and architecture.
We left right after Fussie's first nap because I knew it was going to be a long day so I didn't want to wait until both girls were up again from their afternoon nap (and I was hoping they both might just fall asleep in their stroller at some point.)
It was raining a little when we left but most days when it rains it doesn't last long. We had to travel up to the top of Manhattan about 50 minutes away so I packed my rain jacket and their rain cover figuring it would be over once we got there.
I planned out my trip and found a wheelchair accessible station around the area. But when I was reading on the Cloisters' website they recommended regular visitors get off at a closer station and exit by the elevator.
So I thought, hmm there's an elevator, that must mean that it is wheel chair accessible even though it isn't listed on the subway map. I would love to not have to walk as far so I planned to check it out.
I even asked a police officer on the subway if there really was an elevator at that station and he said yes but after that I would have to go up another level to get out but that there was a ramp. So I thought, easy, I'll do it and save myself the extra effort of walking further.
Boy was I wrong.
Yes, there was an elevator. And there was a ramp. But it was the steepest, longest ramp with a switchback I have used yet. And once it takes you outside the station there was flight of stairs cut out of a rock wall you had to climb to get up to the street.
The subway map was right. Definitely not wheel chair accessible.
And the rain had not stopped. Now it was dumping!
So I got Aaralyn out of the stroller while she was crying about getting wet and made her climb up the rock stairs while I carried Olivia in one arm and half of the stroller in the other.
Luckily, a poor old man took pitty on us and offered to help me carry the stroller up the stairs instead of me trying to drag it up behind me. New Yorkers are always so nice and helpful.
It was such an adventure to just get up onto the street but I still had a 20 minute walk in the pouring rain to get to the Cloisters.
The history of the museum is so interesting to me.
John D Rockefeller Jr was a great philanthropist of the time who was the son of the richest man in the world. He worried about the effect that his father's money would have on him and his children and grandchildren so he spent his life trying to give it away. And only spent money on things that he felt would be for the public good.
Rockefeller's interest in the arts came from his wife's own love of it. He especially loved the religious theme and amazing craftsmanship of medieval art.
In the 1920's Rockefeller obtained many pieces of medieval art and tapestries from Europe and donated them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When some building fragments from a few french abbeys came up for sale he bought them for the collection as well.
Rockefeller didn't feel that the urban location of the Met was suitable for his collection so he donated a 56 acre wooded park overlooking the Hudson on the top of Manhattan to New York City to be used for a public park if they agreed to set aside 4 acres of it for his museum of medieval art.
Obviously they agreed.
The whole trail up to the museum was lined with this stone wall just enhancing the effect.
Finally, we caught a glimpse and it was magnificent.
Rockefeller wanted it to seem like you were coming to a real monastery. It is constructed out of sections from 5 French medieval monasteries and blended with architectural elements from the time.
The museum is surrounded by gardens planted according to horticultural documentation from medieval manuscripts and artifacts.
It was so cool to know that all these same plants were the ones used hundreds of years ago for their medicinal, culinary, magical or household applications at the time.
I love how they incorporated this medieval archway into modern stone walls. Everything was like that and it just made it so much more realistic.
It was just like being transported back in time.
The museum incorporates 5 French cloistered abbeys. A cloister is the covered walkway surrounding a large open courtyard which gives access to all other buildings in the monastery. It is where a lot of the processional activities takes places as well as a quiet area providing an atmosphere for study and meditation.
The original Cuxa cloister was double this size but it had been disassembled after the French Revolution when the monks had left.
The Abbot would call the community to the Chapter House which was usually located off the cloister when there was important business to discuss.
Incredible.
Destination: The Cloisters Museum. A branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which offers an extensive medieval collection of statues, paintings, stained glass windows, tapestries and architecture.
We left right after Fussie's first nap because I knew it was going to be a long day so I didn't want to wait until both girls were up again from their afternoon nap (and I was hoping they both might just fall asleep in their stroller at some point.)
It was raining a little when we left but most days when it rains it doesn't last long. We had to travel up to the top of Manhattan about 50 minutes away so I packed my rain jacket and their rain cover figuring it would be over once we got there.
I planned out my trip and found a wheelchair accessible station around the area. But when I was reading on the Cloisters' website they recommended regular visitors get off at a closer station and exit by the elevator.
So I thought, hmm there's an elevator, that must mean that it is wheel chair accessible even though it isn't listed on the subway map. I would love to not have to walk as far so I planned to check it out.
I even asked a police officer on the subway if there really was an elevator at that station and he said yes but after that I would have to go up another level to get out but that there was a ramp. So I thought, easy, I'll do it and save myself the extra effort of walking further.
Boy was I wrong.
Yes, there was an elevator. And there was a ramp. But it was the steepest, longest ramp with a switchback I have used yet. And once it takes you outside the station there was flight of stairs cut out of a rock wall you had to climb to get up to the street.
The subway map was right. Definitely not wheel chair accessible.
And the rain had not stopped. Now it was dumping!
So I got Aaralyn out of the stroller while she was crying about getting wet and made her climb up the rock stairs while I carried Olivia in one arm and half of the stroller in the other.
Luckily, a poor old man took pitty on us and offered to help me carry the stroller up the stairs instead of me trying to drag it up behind me. New Yorkers are always so nice and helpful.
It was such an adventure to just get up onto the street but I still had a 20 minute walk in the pouring rain to get to the Cloisters.
The history of the museum is so interesting to me.
John D Rockefeller Jr was a great philanthropist of the time who was the son of the richest man in the world. He worried about the effect that his father's money would have on him and his children and grandchildren so he spent his life trying to give it away. And only spent money on things that he felt would be for the public good.
Rockefeller's interest in the arts came from his wife's own love of it. He especially loved the religious theme and amazing craftsmanship of medieval art.
In the 1920's Rockefeller obtained many pieces of medieval art and tapestries from Europe and donated them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When some building fragments from a few french abbeys came up for sale he bought them for the collection as well.
Rockefeller didn't feel that the urban location of the Met was suitable for his collection so he donated a 56 acre wooded park overlooking the Hudson on the top of Manhattan to New York City to be used for a public park if they agreed to set aside 4 acres of it for his museum of medieval art.
Obviously they agreed.
So this park, now Fort Tryon Park, is what I find myself trudging through with a double stroller in the pouring rain.
It was kind of fun because it felt like a story out of my fantasy novels. The park is so removed from The City that you can't hear a thing. I felt like a character on a quest. They are always hiking through forests in horrible weather searching for some long lost secret tower which for some reason they always stumble upon in the middle of the night in the pouring rain.
The whole trail up to the museum was lined with this stone wall just enhancing the effect.
Finally, we caught a glimpse and it was magnificent.
Rockefeller wanted it to seem like you were coming to a real monastery. It is constructed out of sections from 5 French medieval monasteries and blended with architectural elements from the time.
The museum is surrounded by gardens planted according to horticultural documentation from medieval manuscripts and artifacts.
It was so cool to know that all these same plants were the ones used hundreds of years ago for their medicinal, culinary, magical or household applications at the time.
So after walking up a spiraled cobblestone driveway an hour and a half later, the rain had stopped, and we were finally there. Although I don't think these 2 were impressed with the feat.
Oh and then there was another staircase to get up to the front door.
Once I got into the main lobby the staff looked at me like I was crazy. I thought it was just the frazzled state I must've looked. But no they told me that The Cloisters was not very accessible for strollers. (In my defense I had looked at the website and saw a wheelchair and something about accessible programs so thought it was fine) They told me they had an elevator to the lower floor that is available upon request for disabled people but they'd let me use it later. Didn't seem that big of a deal to me.
Once we got started it was so worth it. My favorite time period is the Middle Ages. The wars and Crusades, Romanesque and Gothic art and especially the clothes are so amazing.
I love how they incorporated this medieval archway into modern stone walls. Everything was like that and it just made it so much more realistic.
It was just like being transported back in time.
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| From the Benedictine monestary of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. Northeast Pyrenees, founded 878 AD |
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| Cuxa Cloister |
A lot of the architecture is modern but they actually opened up the same quarry to get the same stones as was used in 878 to blend the original fragments with their modern counterparts.
The cloisters also hold medieval herb gardens with the plants grouped and labeled according to their medieval usage.
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| Pontaut Chapter House from southwest France, 12th century. |
Incredible.
At first I had a hard time with the thought of all these priceless pieces being disassembled brick by brick and sold to the highest bidder. A lot of these cloisters were first in the possession of George Grey Bernard, an american sculptor who used them in his personal gardens.
We are so lucky that John D Rockefeller Jr felt moved to buy them and make them available to the public. But I still felt it was wrong for us to have some of France's priceless artifacts.
I had imagined that Americans just went over to Europe taking anything that looked interesting but I learned that this building was actually being used as a stable so they weren't throwing the monks out of their homes and stealing them. They saved them and preserved them for the rest of us.
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| Virgin and Child. Limestone with original paint, glass and gilding. France. 1340-50. |
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| Christ is Born as Man's Redeemer. Early 16th Century Flemish tapestry. |
This is one of the best preserved Gothic tapestries in existence even though during the French Revolution it was used to keep potatoes in a cellar from freezing. At some point in history this tapestry was cut into 4 pieces so curators at the Met had to figure out how to put it back together while maintaining the integrity of the original. Look at the top left corner. You will see a white and black bird between two scenes. The original was so frayed that they restorers had to weave an entirely new one.
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| Three Kings from an Adoration Group. Swabia, Germany before 1489 |
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| Palmesel, 15th Century |
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| Metalwork-Alloy Aquamaniles. Germany 1200-1500AD |
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| Female Reliquary Busts. Brussels and South Netherlands Early 16th Century |
Reliquaries in the form of busts became popular in the High Middle Ages and hold the remains or relics of female saints and derive their power from the relic they contain as well as from the beauty and intrinsic qualities of the vessel.
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| The Nine Heroes Tapestries. South Netherlands. 1385. |
This archway was found in a field in Italy.
Wow.
This cloister is from the upper gallery of the 2-story Benedictine abbey of Saint Guilhem le Desert cloister in southern France, dated to 1206. The damage was so severe to this monastery that the stone mason who bought these columns had no idea what the original dimensions or sequence of the columns were.
Look at the dark patterns made by drill holes on the columns’ capitals that embellish the foliage and almost make it look lacy. They were probably inspired by the remains of Roman sculptures that would’ve been available in France at the time and give a clean, sophisticated look against the cream limestone. Love it.
Can you imagine that they were being used as grape arbors before they were bought and brought over here?
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| Gothic Chapel and Tomb effigy of Jean d'Alluye. France, 1248 |
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| Saint Germain and a donor. Burgundy, 15th century |
So now it came time to go to the lower level. The staff had kept talking about me needing to go down there.
So I went to go ask.
An older gentleman who I could barely understand walked me over to the elevator. An elevator barley wide enough to fit a wheelchair through... so I hauled the girls out, heldOlivia in one arm while I tried to fold the stroller and wedge it through with the other. All the while the guy was saying "oh I don't know if this is going fit." I didn't care I was going to make it fit.
Then we came to a wooden door that opened into the Cloisters' Treasury. This held the really cool artifacts.
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| Illuminated Manuscript Bible. France, 1465 |
Can you imagine how many hours it would've taken a monk to paint this?
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| Noblewoman's Prayer Book. Look at that gold leafing! |
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| Only Surviving Complete Deck of Medieval Playing Cards. South Netherlands, 1475 |
We got to the top and the girls were somewhat subdued so I ran over to a room that I had missed earlier. There was a tour group in there when I was going through before and the girls were playing around and making noise so I didn't stay. But this is the Cloisters most famous room.
The Unicorn Room holds seven individual hangings, known as "The Unicorn Tapestries," which are considered to be among the most beautiful and complex works of art from the late Middle Ages that survive. Luxuriously woven in fine wool and silk with silver and gilded threads, the tapestries vividly depict scenes associated with a hunt for the elusive, magical unicorn.
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| The Unicorn in Captivity 1495-1505 |
Or if this tapestry is part of the other tapestries in the hunting sequence, it could be placed at the end and represent the Resurrected Christ.
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| The Hunters Enter the Woods, 1495-1505 |
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| The Unicorn is Found |
The twelve hunters discuss the discovery of their quarry but in Medieval lore it was prohibited to kill a unicorn while it was performing a magical act. Here the unicorn purifies the stream with its horn, suggested by the sage, pot marigolds, and orange (herbal antidotes to poisoning) located near the water.
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| The Unicorn is Attacked |
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| The Unicorn Defends Itself |
The horn-blowing hunter at the lower left wears a scabbard with the inscription AVE REGINA C (Hail, Queen of the Heavens) thought to represent the Archangel Gabriel, who announced to the Virgin Mary that she is to give birth to the Christ Child.
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| The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle |
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| The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle |
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| The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle |
I am so glad I didn't skip this room. I had learned about these tapestries in my European Art History class in college so it was so incredible to see them in person. It was the perfect note to end on. I would love to come back here sans children one day.
Of course it really didn't end there. I had to trek back to the station with both girls yelling, haul them down the staircase with the help of another old man, brave the 50min subway ride and the accompanying looks from fellow passengers wondering why my kids were crying so hard.
Finally we made it back home and the girls fell right asleep and stayed that way for 4 hours.
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