Life Highlights: Drabble 6

Wow! Did not mean to neglect this blog since Friday! But this weekend I was bound and determined to relax and turn off (relatively speaking).  So on Saturday I went to the Met Cloisters up at Inwood Park since it was a gorgeous spring day (although it was more like a summer's day since it was almost 80 degrees out!).  It was really great to see, although I also had mixed feelings about it.

It's basically a re-created cloister built in the 1930s to emulate the European cloisters/churches/abbeys from the Middle Ages.  And it actually is partially built out of those real materials imported from France, Spain, etc.  Then the museum branch itself has an (obviously) heavy focus only on European Christian art/relics/artefacts from the medieval ages (approximately 1100-1500 AD).  There were also pretty gardens in and around the property.

On one hand, I enjoyed the hodgepodge mash-up as quite an American thing - to take a bunch of older art that we don't have, and try to re-create the environment here.  But on the other hand, my anachronism internal-radar going off the charts because they mixed up cultures, countries, and centuries almost indiscriminately.  For instance, for an alter area they put together candelabras from the 1500s from Spain together with a crucifix from Germany from the 1300s with a table from Britain from the 1400s, with stained glass windows from Italy and Germany from the 1200s, etc.  To me, that just seems insane.  It would be like if we put together a place of worship with relics from the 1600s to the 2000s (also a time gap of 400 years).

Perhaps this is the hip, new way to curate museum exhibits and I'm just out of touch (for instance, the Bowie exhibit was similarly arranged more by theme rather than era/decade/place).  And in some fashion it was cool to see the different manifestations of Christianity in Europe over the centuries.  But if they were to combine things like that, I'd rather have at least a common country or year in one section of the cloister gallery.

My favourite pieces there were all the stained glass windows and tapestries.  But my favourite parts of the whole place altogether were definitely the gardens and surrounding lawns.  It was small, but quaint, and after an entire winter of cold and snow and deadness it was a welcome warmth.

Then Sunday I basically was a hermit and didn't go outside except for a quick grocery store stop and just watched YouTube videos all day (the best kind of day).  This unfortunately was a good call to make, as the weather went back to the gloom and dreariness of April.  Still excited and preparing for when Todd and Annaliese visit in just two weeks!