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The Museum Visit
Museums are essential facilities that are utilized to collect as well as to preserve artifacts that point to the history of human life. Significantly, they help the incoming generation connect the present with the past. Through the visual items as well as the preserved history, people have been able to understand the theories behind the creation of the world. For interest sake, I made up my mind to visit one of the world’s public museums called the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, New York. It is a large building made up of 19 departments with roughly 2 billion items of art preserved and showcased in art galleries (Whitley, 2015).
While there, I was assisted by a docent who explained to me when the museum happened to be incorporated, i.e., 1870 (Whitley, 2015), whereas construction started four years later. According to him, it was completed in 14 years. During this period the building has had continuous remodeling as well as expansions to cater for the increasing historical remains. The architectural style applied was the gothic revival. Its unique entrance, which is distinguishable from several other buildings within the city was put up in 1926 (Whitley, 2015).
It has quite several artworks that are displayable in the many sections of the Met. The significant collections, as well as groupings of these ancient items, include the Egyptian art, Roman, African, American, Asian and Europe, which entails religion and the nature of the history of the human past. The provided remains of the past come in different forms ranging from sculpture to paintings. Collections availed entails armory as well as weapons, instruments of music, costumes, and also building interiors.
The visit, in particular, was unusual in that it rendered me to various fantasies of the universe. To me, it was comparable to a visit to a fairyland. It is a form of refreshment and a great experience which allowed me to see and touch some of the famous ancient relics. I have passion in painting and on that day I realized that it has nothing much but painter’s incarnations of imaginations. I was thus amazed to know how artist impact to life, the lifeless canvas by use of mere mundane items such as oil, color pigments, and brush.
A surprise hit me throughout my being there for the stories the museum docent would give me about various artworks. One major piece of work which took my attention was Washington Crossing Delaware which is familiar and common in history volumes. It was attractive to almost every other person who came by it for its sheer size; 25 by 21 feet (Weems, 2015). It is as well as oil, canvas depicting Washington an American Revolutionary War General, as he closed the Delaware River that was nearly icy together with his troop of soldiers during the night in the year 1776 on a December (Weems, 2015). I was surprised to know that the painter of this art was of German origin by the name Emmanuel Leutze. He was pushed to painting it in response to his native country’s politics. The artist was an immigrant, though he was brought up in America, who later went back to his home country. From historical records I found and the explanation I got at the museum, I found that the individual had a strong belief in liberalism and thus would paint to motivate what was referred to as liberal reforms especially in Europe. His intention was, therefore, glorification of the actions of General Washington’s military.
The trip was fruitful in that I learned, enjoyed and opened up about the origin of man. This was facilitated by a tangible object that point to the human past. The place is crucial and essential to those interested in history and archeology.
References
Weems, Mason L. The life of Washington. Routledge, 2015.
Whitley, James. “Arnold Hauser, Social History of Art: Prehistoric, Ancient-Oriental, Greece
and Rome, Middle Ages (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1951), 69. 2 Department of Greek and Roman Art. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” (2015).