Holiday offerings at the Met are sure to move you.
As art museums go, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan is the “cathedral” of museums.
No. The basilica.
And when I visited two days before Thanksgiving, the plaza and steps were filled and buzzing with patrons of all ages. It almost seemed like it was Christmas.
And once you entered the Medieval Sculpture Hall, it certainly was, as you saw the second most memorable tree in Manhattan with the Neapolitan Baroque Creche. The tall 20-foot blue spruce is adorned with cherubs and angels. More than 70 additional figures at the base represent the three elements of Nativity scenes traditional to 18th-century Naples: shepherds and their flocks, the three Magi, and peasants and townspeople.
Enhancing the display are nearly 50 animals and background elements — such as the ruins of a Roman temple, several quaint houses and a typical Italian fountain — that create a dramatic setting for the Nativity.
You can catch this holiday exhibit through Jan. 6. Then wander into the Cantor Galleries to see the silver menorah from the late 19th century crafted for the Great Synagogue in Ukraine. The museum claims it is one of the largest silver Hanukkah lamps known. On loan from the Moldovan Family Collection, the Hanukkah menorah commemorates an important moment in Jewish history: the triumphant Maccabean revolt against the oppressive Seleucid Empire and the reconsecration of the Jewish Holy Temple in 165 BC.
The lamp’s eight branches refer to the miracle in which the last vessel of oil, which should have lasted only one day, kept the temple menorah lit for eight days to allow for the temple’s rebirth.
Religion was the reason for my visit, so I also ventured into Siena, Italy, back in the first half of the 14th century when the Tuscan city was one of the great capitals of Italy. It was not a port or river city, but Siena sat strategically on a major route from northern Europe to Rome and further south to Naples. After a military victory over the Florentines in 1260, the Sienese dedicated their city to the Virgin Mary, whose image was emblazoned on all official documents with the inscription “May the Virgin protect ancient Siena whose beauty she preserves.”
In 1285, an elected council of nine leaders brought a period of peace and prosperity until 1355, when the plague wiped out half the city’s population, including many of the artists whose works are exhibited at the Met. Artists, especially painters, transformed Siena to create large decorative pieces for civic and religious buildings while also producing smaller paintings collected and admired far beyond the city walls.
On view through Jan. 26, the Met’s “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350,” the first exhibit outside of Europe to focus on the extraordinary achievement of Sienese artists in the 1300s, highlights four remarkable painters: Duccio di Buoninsegna, Simone Martini and brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
These religious works are a feast for the eyes, and you need to linger in front of them so you can notice the humanity within them.
Christmas is a time for seeing many depictions of the Mother and Child. Examine di Buoninsegna’s “Virgin and Child.” The curator captures how “Duccio has suffused the figure of the Virgin with a gentle grace and a melancholy that contrasts with the playfulness of the Christ Child.” The infant grasps his mother’s veil as babies do. Segna di Buonaventura’s “Virgin and Child” is placed alongside “Nine Angels” on one side and “The Crucifixion” on the right for a reason. Several paintings like it contrast Mary’s sorrow while holding her infant who would eventually be crucified.
Looking at Simone Martini’s “Christ Discovered in the Temple,” you notice Jesus as a teenager with arms folded, probably stewing as his parents scold him for disappearing from them. The curator captured the mood: “Simone focused on exploring the dynamic of a family drama: an elderly father points to the worry that a child’s absence has brought to his mother; the pouting adolescent seems unmoved.”
But you will be moved by viewing the rise of religious painting, and it will get you into the spirit of the holidays.
The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; X: @padrehoboken.
Rev. Alexander