Buh! Be offended by my insults.
Feb. 16th, 2004 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deliriumcrowLast year on this day I was in New York City. Today on this date, I was also in New York City. Just wanted to establish something like continuity in the universe or something. You needed to know that. Trust me.
Went to the Cloisters today. Which meant waking up at the same time I do every morning for school, and taking the train into the city, with Judy Perry. I assume I'm to call her Judy now rather than Mrs Perry, seeing as we're in classes together, and I *am* an adult now, or something. Even if I am in her son's age bracket. I don't know. Anyway.
So we got into Grand Central, and tried to figure out exactly where we were supposed to get teh subway to Ft Tryon park, and we did'nt get lost. And in the Times Square terminal they're doing all sorts of construction and renovation and niftiness, and it looks...interesting. They're doign new murals, and even some mosaics. I didn't get any photos. In the deep bowels of the terminal, there were the creepiest sections I have ever seen. Ever. There was water dripping from the ceiling and forming icicles, and it smelled like mildew and decay. I love decay. Unfortunately it just didn't seem like the right time to pull out a camera. But damn. That place was creepy in that exceptionally photogenic way, or would have been had I had the time to prove it.
We found the train after much walking underground for several blocks. And then a long ride to the top of the island, and a stop that had a semi-ruin next to it, that came out right at the park. A decent walk, but chilly. Brisk. In the spring it will be gorgeous. Gorgeous I say! Photos of the ruin forthcoming.
The Cloisters themselves, for those who have not seen them, are splendiferous. Bits of medieval architecture were disassembled and shipped over to America and reassembled in Ft Tryon Park, just because they could. They seem to be hled together with unobtrusive modern materials, and are gorgeous. Several gardens and outside bits, and wow. On entering there's a long stone hallway, leading to an inforamtion desk and coat check, where the fellow thought I was Judy's mother, or we were sisters. Up the stairs is the payment booth, and from there you can go three directions. Right is the bookstore. Full of books. Many books. I took notes, and have a list, should I ever have money again. Left is sculptuary, forward is the Romanesque area. This is where we went. And then left into a room culminating in a romanesque apse, with a huge, lifesized, emaciated crucifix suspended from the ceiling. For some reason I don't remember what was in the room beside that. Back into the main hallway of Romanesque, there were two massive murals, one of a dragon, one of a lion, both frescoes, in reds and yellows. Also a wooden statue of Mary enthroned with the Christ child, which we saw in class. She looks less severe in person, just kind of sad and lonely. At the end of it is another little chapel, with plenty of seats. It felt reverent, even being in a museum. there was a thing that looked like a gazebo over the altar, which had a bouquet of rose hips in a wide vase on it. The doors were splendid. So thick, with heavy patterned iron bands across about a hand's length apart. None of the bands was at all similar, aside from general dimensions. The doorway for the place had beautiful statues on it. Then through another door to the left side of the whole hall and into a section that had a fountain in the middle, and many pillars. The windows were in stone casements that were made for sitting in with a book. Not really, but that was my inclination. From here you could reach the room of statues, which were mostly wooden, polychrome, and gilded. And a huge lectern in the shape of an eagle, and many curly bits. Beyond that was a room containing incredible wooden things. Like the ceiling. Every beam was painted. An iron folding chair that I may very well try to re create, seeing as no one can argue that it's not period. It's more or less my period, so they can stick it. :) an iron bird cage, a really nifty wall sconce, a brass (gilded?) chandelier.
And the Merode Altarpiece. I have finally seen it. It's smaller than I had thought, and so very, very bright. The colours glow, and are alive. The detail, oh the detail, why would anyone paint so small? Not that I mind! It goves more detail that I would ever have quessed on a figure the size of a small ant. You can see the shape of the chemises drying over a windowsill, about a quarter of an inch in height. And the wife's dress is red, very red. I didn't know that.
Then there's the room of the unicorn tapestries, and the most impressive fireplace I have ever seen, full of interesting iron things for pots and whatnot. And more of those iron lily-shaped candle sticks. What do you call them when they're floor standing, not on the table? And taller than me? then the room with the saints tapestries, which goes into the stairs down. On the left hand side of the stairs is a door that might go to something, or might just be there for the hell of it. It's wooden, as most are, all carved intricately, with a sweet little handle. It could be a dog, or an ermine or ferret, or it could be a cat. Or something entirely different. Whatever, it's terribly cute.
Downstairs led into a room full of tomb carvings. I shot many of those, as they offer very presice details of people's costumes. like shape and size of purses at the waist, and useful things, And a really strange headdress from the 14th century. and then to another room full of more carvings. these were smaller, but no less impressive. There was the center panel of an altarpiece of the life of St Augustine, a polychrome St Barbara, and a beautiful Mary Magdalene that looked like she hed never been painted. Many impressive things. Reliquaries, relief carvings that looked like they were not only carved in the round but moving, and a wooden structure with a door, and maybe stairs, that had been almost destroyed, if the brfore photo was anything to go by. Then the room full of illuminated manuscripts, including gilded pages from the Tres Belles Heures by the Limbourg Brothers. I never thought I'd ever see those. Ever. They are so perfect, and so very small. The next room ad fabric pieces. Real fabric. Silks, velvets, brocades, a cope, an embroidered dalmatic, reoliquaries, very small carved things, chalices.... an embroidered purse that I have seen a photograph of. The terribly huge patterns one sees on 15th century clothing was actually that big, it was not artistic liscense. apparently they liked wearing things we would use for upholstry. And I think that was the last of the rooms. Photos are forthcoming, in the event that I ever get around to posting them.
In the train station we found a magzine called English heritage that talked about places and people we had discussed in English history, so Judy brought it home. It talked about Hereward! This is good. It also talked about a fellow who liked to slit women's skirts and prick their bums with a knife, saying things like "Oh ho! Is that you?" and "Buh!" This was somehow insulting. The rest of the article described the rather uninspiring chase after the suspect, and his subsequent capture and trial. Told, of course, in that terribly funy dry English manner. And an article on the mystery of the death of Robert Dudley's wife, possiblt orchestrated by Dudley and Elizabeth I to get her out of the was so Liz and Dud could get together. And we all know how well that turned out.
Went to the Cloisters today. Which meant waking up at the same time I do every morning for school, and taking the train into the city, with Judy Perry. I assume I'm to call her Judy now rather than Mrs Perry, seeing as we're in classes together, and I *am* an adult now, or something. Even if I am in her son's age bracket. I don't know. Anyway.
So we got into Grand Central, and tried to figure out exactly where we were supposed to get teh subway to Ft Tryon park, and we did'nt get lost. And in the Times Square terminal they're doing all sorts of construction and renovation and niftiness, and it looks...interesting. They're doign new murals, and even some mosaics. I didn't get any photos. In the deep bowels of the terminal, there were the creepiest sections I have ever seen. Ever. There was water dripping from the ceiling and forming icicles, and it smelled like mildew and decay. I love decay. Unfortunately it just didn't seem like the right time to pull out a camera. But damn. That place was creepy in that exceptionally photogenic way, or would have been had I had the time to prove it.
We found the train after much walking underground for several blocks. And then a long ride to the top of the island, and a stop that had a semi-ruin next to it, that came out right at the park. A decent walk, but chilly. Brisk. In the spring it will be gorgeous. Gorgeous I say! Photos of the ruin forthcoming.
The Cloisters themselves, for those who have not seen them, are splendiferous. Bits of medieval architecture were disassembled and shipped over to America and reassembled in Ft Tryon Park, just because they could. They seem to be hled together with unobtrusive modern materials, and are gorgeous. Several gardens and outside bits, and wow. On entering there's a long stone hallway, leading to an inforamtion desk and coat check, where the fellow thought I was Judy's mother, or we were sisters. Up the stairs is the payment booth, and from there you can go three directions. Right is the bookstore. Full of books. Many books. I took notes, and have a list, should I ever have money again. Left is sculptuary, forward is the Romanesque area. This is where we went. And then left into a room culminating in a romanesque apse, with a huge, lifesized, emaciated crucifix suspended from the ceiling. For some reason I don't remember what was in the room beside that. Back into the main hallway of Romanesque, there were two massive murals, one of a dragon, one of a lion, both frescoes, in reds and yellows. Also a wooden statue of Mary enthroned with the Christ child, which we saw in class. She looks less severe in person, just kind of sad and lonely. At the end of it is another little chapel, with plenty of seats. It felt reverent, even being in a museum. there was a thing that looked like a gazebo over the altar, which had a bouquet of rose hips in a wide vase on it. The doors were splendid. So thick, with heavy patterned iron bands across about a hand's length apart. None of the bands was at all similar, aside from general dimensions. The doorway for the place had beautiful statues on it. Then through another door to the left side of the whole hall and into a section that had a fountain in the middle, and many pillars. The windows were in stone casements that were made for sitting in with a book. Not really, but that was my inclination. From here you could reach the room of statues, which were mostly wooden, polychrome, and gilded. And a huge lectern in the shape of an eagle, and many curly bits. Beyond that was a room containing incredible wooden things. Like the ceiling. Every beam was painted. An iron folding chair that I may very well try to re create, seeing as no one can argue that it's not period. It's more or less my period, so they can stick it. :) an iron bird cage, a really nifty wall sconce, a brass (gilded?) chandelier.
And the Merode Altarpiece. I have finally seen it. It's smaller than I had thought, and so very, very bright. The colours glow, and are alive. The detail, oh the detail, why would anyone paint so small? Not that I mind! It goves more detail that I would ever have quessed on a figure the size of a small ant. You can see the shape of the chemises drying over a windowsill, about a quarter of an inch in height. And the wife's dress is red, very red. I didn't know that.
Then there's the room of the unicorn tapestries, and the most impressive fireplace I have ever seen, full of interesting iron things for pots and whatnot. And more of those iron lily-shaped candle sticks. What do you call them when they're floor standing, not on the table? And taller than me? then the room with the saints tapestries, which goes into the stairs down. On the left hand side of the stairs is a door that might go to something, or might just be there for the hell of it. It's wooden, as most are, all carved intricately, with a sweet little handle. It could be a dog, or an ermine or ferret, or it could be a cat. Or something entirely different. Whatever, it's terribly cute.
Downstairs led into a room full of tomb carvings. I shot many of those, as they offer very presice details of people's costumes. like shape and size of purses at the waist, and useful things, And a really strange headdress from the 14th century. and then to another room full of more carvings. these were smaller, but no less impressive. There was the center panel of an altarpiece of the life of St Augustine, a polychrome St Barbara, and a beautiful Mary Magdalene that looked like she hed never been painted. Many impressive things. Reliquaries, relief carvings that looked like they were not only carved in the round but moving, and a wooden structure with a door, and maybe stairs, that had been almost destroyed, if the brfore photo was anything to go by. Then the room full of illuminated manuscripts, including gilded pages from the Tres Belles Heures by the Limbourg Brothers. I never thought I'd ever see those. Ever. They are so perfect, and so very small. The next room ad fabric pieces. Real fabric. Silks, velvets, brocades, a cope, an embroidered dalmatic, reoliquaries, very small carved things, chalices.... an embroidered purse that I have seen a photograph of. The terribly huge patterns one sees on 15th century clothing was actually that big, it was not artistic liscense. apparently they liked wearing things we would use for upholstry. And I think that was the last of the rooms. Photos are forthcoming, in the event that I ever get around to posting them.
In the train station we found a magzine called English heritage that talked about places and people we had discussed in English history, so Judy brought it home. It talked about Hereward! This is good. It also talked about a fellow who liked to slit women's skirts and prick their bums with a knife, saying things like "Oh ho! Is that you?" and "Buh!" This was somehow insulting. The rest of the article described the rather uninspiring chase after the suspect, and his subsequent capture and trial. Told, of course, in that terribly funy dry English manner. And an article on the mystery of the death of Robert Dudley's wife, possiblt orchestrated by Dudley and Elizabeth I to get her out of the was so Liz and Dud could get together. And we all know how well that turned out.
