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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tYou can\u2019t see every work on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and you probably shouldn\u2019t even try to, either\u2014unless you intend to spend days on end at this hallowed New York institution, methodically going wing by wing, gallery by gallery. We wouldn\u2019t blame you for doing just that; the Met remains not just one of the top museums in the United States but one of the greatest encyclopedic institutions in the world. But the truth is that most of us are short on time, and that makes for some hard decisions.<\/p>\n
\n\tPerhaps you are lucky enough to have three hours at the Met. Where to first? The remarkable Egyptian wing, where the Temple of Dendur acts as a destination for tourists and Met habitu\u00e9s alike? The sprawling European paintings wing, where one can find masterworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, and the like? The newly redone Rockefeller Wing, filled with treasures from Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas? And that\u2019s to say nothing of the special exhibitions!<\/p>\n
\n\tLet us guide you. Below are 100 works to see at the Met, from relics of fallen civilizations to iconic artistic documents of our time. These pieces traverse multiple millennia and many disparate countries and are arranged below chronologically to encourage cross-cultural viewing.<\/p>\n
\n\tThese works are grouped loosely below by wing, but they are not ordered by importance or quality\u2014all are great, and anyway, ranking the Met\u2019s many artistic jewels would be too punishing a task. For plotting your own trip, we recommend consulting the Met\u2019s website, where you may make some discoveries of your own.<\/p>\n
\n\tA note on methodology: The Met, like many other U.S. institutions right now, has been slowly changing what\u2019s on view, in part to accommodate collection rehangs and in part to respond to repatriation requests. (And that\u2019s to say nothing of loans to other institutions\u2019 special exhibitions, which happen periodically.) Also, the Met is typically remodeling at least one wing at any given moment, which means that certain works that appear here may not currently be on view. We\u2019ll update this list periodically to note when an object is off view but will soon return.<\/p>\n
\tMastaba Tomb of Perneb, ca. 2381\u20132323 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tMost who visit the Met\u2019s bountiful Egyptian galleries rush toward the Temple of Dendur (more on that in a bit), even though another walk-in ancient structure greets them in this wing. That structure, which once housed the body of a priest and prince named Perneb, has been transported to the Met\u2019s galleries in its ruined form. Visitors can enter this structure, once part of a rectangular tomb known as a mastaba, and view a reconstructed serdab, or statue chamber, where painted reliefs emphasize Perneb\u2019s connection to the sun god Ra, whom ancient Egyptians worshiped as a life-force. The obelisks that once accompanied this mastaba, dating to the Fifth Dynasty, are no longer here, but even without them the tomb retains its majesty.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Egyptian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tHippopotamus (\u201cWilliam\u201d), ca. 1961\u20131878 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tTo contemporary eyes, this sculpture of a hippo is irresistibly cute\u2014so adorable, in fact, that the Met now vends plush replicas of it in its gift shop. But in ancient Egypt, animals such as this one symbolized violent, unruly nature. The desire to tame Egypt\u2019s fauna may have been what led the treasurer Senbi II to be interred with this sculpture, which was made using an earthenware material known as faience. Glazed in blue and painted with lotuses, this hippopotamus has retained its beauty for more than 4,000 years, acting now as one of the main attractions not just in the ancient Egyptian galleries but in all of the Met. Most who come to see it know it by its nickname, William, a cutesy moniker given to this piece by a British humor magazine during the 1930s.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Egyptian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tSeated Statue of Hatshepsut, 1479\u20131458 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tHatshepsut, a female pharaoh who crowned herself ruler of ancient Egypt, continues to fascinate us because of the way she flouted the gender roles of her day. (Met nerds\u2014like yours truly\u2014look back fondly on a 2005 blockbuster show about her that was staged at this museum.) The sculptures that depicted her aided in that subversion, for many seemed to represent a man rather than a woman. That makes this sculpture, crafted from limestone and initially painted in blue, an anomaly, since it clearly depicts a female sitter, with her breasts left visible to the viewer. Here, Hatshepsut is shown seated and wearing a kiltlike garment. She appears ready to receive the offerings that would have been placed at her feet.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Egyptian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tFragment of a Queen\u2019s Face, ca. 1390\u20131336 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tFew artworks in the Met\u2019s collection contain quite so much mystery\u2014and quite so much beauty\u2014as this 3,400-year-old sculpted half of a woman\u2019s face. The identity of the woman represented here in jasper (might it be Queen Nefertiti herself?) has been lost to history, as has the body to which this chin and neck were once appended. Never mind any of that. The lips are pressed firmly into a knowing expression whose intrigue still can be felt. What remains can stand on its own, showing that the riddles of the past are sometimes best left unraveled.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Egyptian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tTemple of Dendur, ca. 10 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWere one to make the painful decision to view just one work at the Met to the exclusion of all the others, most would probably opt for the Temple of Dendur, a reconstructed ancient Egyptian structure replete with fountains, sculptures, reliefs, and more. Lavishly installed in an airy room of its own, the sandstone temple dates to the Roman period and was dedicated to Isis, a goddess said to help usher the dead into the afterlife. Alongside sculpted images of lotus flowers and a range of hieroglyphics, there are images of Caesar Augustus of Rome, who then ruled Egypt. In 1965 Egypt gifted the Temple of Dendur to the United States, which had contributed $16 million to a UNESCO fund to save threatened Egyptian antiquities, and it went on view at the Met in 1978. Few institutions other than the Met could have received such a temple, let alone housed it for generations to come.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Egyptian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tPortrait of the Boy Eutyches, 100\u2013150 CE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis painted portrait is exhibited in the Met\u2019s galleries for ancient Egyptian art, but the work attests to a rich cross-cultural pollination that exceeds the remit of just one wing. Because the work was produced during a period when Egypt was under Roman rule, it was painted in a distinctly Roman style. But the painting would have been placed on top of a mummy\u2019s face\u2014something that Romans wouldn\u2019t have done with such an image. Executed using the encaustic technique, which involves combining pigment with hot wax, the work is one of around 1,000 extant paintings known as Fayum portraits, named so because many of them were found in Egypt\u2019s Faiyum Basin.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Egyptian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tMarble Seated Harp Player, 2800\u20132700 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tMultiple millennia ago, residents of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of what is now Greece, set art on a new course with their spare sculptures of people. In this one, a seated person is shown plucking a lyrelike instrument known as a kithara. Though certain parts are detailed\u2014note this figure\u2019s tiny toes, each marked out with precision\u2014the sculpture is highly stylized, with the kithara appearing to merge with its player\u2019s shoulder. The smoothness of the marble and the elegant minimalism of its forms, alternatively angular or arced, paved the way for future Greek artists, who would gradually move toward increased naturalism\u2014and for modern and contemporary artists, who drew on the simplicity of Cycladic art.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Greek and Roman Galleries<\/p>\n
\tTerracotta Stirrup Jar with Octopus, ca. 1200\u20131100 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe many well-preserved statues of men, women, and children are the main attractions of the Greek and Roman galleries, but the pottery on view in vitrines around these rooms offers charms of its own. One such delightful vessel is this Mycenaean jar fashioned from terracotta. It once served a practical purpose\u2014its owner would have used it to tote liquids around\u2014but it now exists mainly to be admired for the stylized octopus painted across its surface, its tentacles splayed out amid swimming fish. The minimalism of ancient vessels like this one provided fodder for modernists looking to learn from the past, centuries later.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Greek and Roman Galleries<\/p>\n
\tBronze Statuette of a Veiled and Masked Dancer, 3rd\u20132nd century BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat this statuette lacks in size it makes up for in beauty. It stands just 8\u00bd inches tall and dates to the Hellenistic period, a time when ancient Greek sculptors worked tirelessly to achieve a sense of naturalism that their medium previously lacked. That explains the sheer drape that ensconces this mysterious dancer, who moves her body beneath fabric that catches on one foot to reveal a slipper. The detail on that drape\u2014its rippling folds in some places, its tautness in others\u2014remains potent to this day.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Greek and Roman Galleries<\/p>\n
\tCubiculum (Bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, ca. 50\u201340 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Italian commune of Boscoreale was trapped beneath volcanic ash during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, preserving the frescoes found in ancient Roman rooms such as this one reconstructed at the Met. Spread across the walls are paintings executed with an astonishing degree of illusionism. Juicy fruits, rows of columns, cracked maroon walls, craggy hills, and stately statues all appear here, rendered with such detail that these paintings appear to act as windows onto the world. Only the wealthy could afford such vistas, however; this bedroom once belonged to a luxury villa for the aristocracy. The good news is that one need only pay the Met\u2019s admission fee to enjoy these paintings today.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Greek and Roman Galleries<\/p>\n
\tMarble Statue of an Old Woman, ca. 14\u201368 CE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis ancient Roman statue is technically a copy of a Greek one belonging to the Hellenistic period, when sculptors found new and creative ways of mimicking the human form with a greater degree of naturalism. Attention has been paid here to the folds of the old woman\u2019s loose dress\u2014a typically Hellenistic flourish that rhymes nicely with her aged skin, which sags in places as she marches onward. Given her ivy wreath, she is probably walking toward a party in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine, and indeed, the original Greek work may have once figured in a sanctuary in his name.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Greek and Roman Galleries<\/p>\n
\tStatue of Gudea, ca. 2090 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tAt less than 18 inches tall, this squat sculpture exudes a sense of authority, a testament to the skill of its Neo-Sumerian craftsperson. The sculpture depicts the ruler Gudea, who, following the fall of the Akkadian Empire, helped turn Lagash, in what is now Iraq, into a prosperous city-state, with many temples of note. Carved from diorite, a tough rock that few knew how to sculpt at the time, the piece contains a Sumerian inscription that boasts of Gudea\u2019s ability to commission sites of worship. His steely gaze, his taut posture, and his clasped hands project austerity and power more than four millennia on.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Egyptian Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tLamassu, ca. 883\u2013859 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Met\u2019s wonderful galleries for ancient West Asian and Cypriot art are currently closed while they undergo renovation, which is too bad: Their star, this winged bull known as a lamassu, ranks among the most awe-inspiring works to be found anywhere in a museum that\u2019s chock-full of them. Before coming to the Met via John D. Rockefeller, this lamassu was surrounded by others like it as part of an enormous mud-brick wall protecting the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, king of the Assyrian empire, which included portions of modern-day Iran and Egypt. Even in isolation, however, this eight-ton limestone sculpture holds its own, in part thanks to its strangeness. Notably, it has five legs to hold it upright instead of the four one expects from most earthly animals.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Ancient West Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tPlate with a Hunting Scene from the Tale of Bahram Gur and Azadeh, ca. 5th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tMost people skip the displays that house small works between the second-floor galleries for European painting and Asian art. It\u2019s their loss, for the vitrines here hold gems such as this silver plate, which the Met notes bears one of the earliest depictions of the Sasanian king Bahram V being challenged to shoot gazelles by his hunting companion, the harpist Azadeh. According to Sasanian lore, Azadeh intentionally gave Bahram the impossible task of switching two gazelles\u2019 genders, but the king somehow managed to pull it off. His feat is immortalized here via a busy composition in which arrows fly as gazelles tumble beneath his horse\u2019s feet. Bahram looks on stoically, seemingly unfazed by the difficulty of his task.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: The Great Hall<\/p>\n
\tMarble Portrait Bust of a Woman with a Scroll, late 4th century\u2013early 5th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019ll have to hop on the uptown A train to see most of the Met\u2019s Byzantine and medieval treasures, which are housed largely at the Cloisters, the dedicated annex of that curatorial department. But for those not willing to make the journey\u2014which is long, yes, but worth it\u2014there are still some great works to be had at the Met\u2019s Fifth Avenue base, including this bust produced in Constantinople. It depicts a woman holding a scroll, and in the portrait one can sense an intense psychology behind her carefully crafted eyes.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Late Roman and Early Byzantine Galleries<\/p>\n
\tFragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis, 500\u2013550<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tNot so long ago, this fragment of a larger mosaic was itself composed of two fragments: The Met acquired its pieces, one for each figure represented, in the 1990s, then brought them together after studying pictures from a dealer who had held them prior to their separation. Today those fragments seamlessly combine to illustrate the human embodiment of Ktisis, a concept that denotes \u201cthe act of generous donation or foundation,\u201d per the Met. Whereas this mosaic from the Byzantine era was once the source of fascination for its tesserae, which are laid in an expressive way that highlights folds on Ktisis\u2019s neck and shadows under her eyes, it now provides scholarly fodder for historians researching the contributions that Africa made to the development of art in the ancient Mediterranean, since this mosaic may have been found in North Africa.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Late Roman and Early Byzantine Galleries<\/p>\n
\tSeated Hollow Figure with Helmet, 1200\u2013800 BCE<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe exact purpose of this sculpture, one of the many artworks of its kind known as Olmec \u201cbabies,\u201d remains unknown: experts have speculated that it could have honored the loss of a child, or perhaps functioned as a depiction of an adult shown in a younger form. Whatever the case, this genderless infant bespeaks the centrality of babies to Olmec culture, which viewed them as being intimately tied to the natural world. Recovered from the Las Bocas site in what is now the Mexican state of Puebla, the sculpture is crafted from ceramic, coated in white slip, and painted with red highlights. Its flabby stomach evinces a level of naturalism that is surprising even to contemporary eyes.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\tTunic, 650\u20131000<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 2025, when the Met unveiled its renovated and rehung Michael C. Rockefeller Wing for art of the ancient Americas, Africa, and Oceania, textiles emerged as a new focus, and this tunic produced by the Wari people emerged as a gem. Other tunics produced by the Wari, who lived in what is now Peru, likewise feature animals abstracted nearly beyond recognition. But many of those tunics have gridlike compositions, while this one, with its cascade of zigzags, circles, and hash marks, feels liberated from such a rigid logic. Were it not displayed alongside so many other objects from long ago, it could easily be mistaken for a piece of contemporary art.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\t\u00d9h\u00fanmw\u00e8la\u00f2 (Head of an \u00d3b\u00e0), 16th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThough this work might seem like a portrait of an oba, or a ruler of the Kingdom of Benin, it was not meant to be a precise likeness. Working in bronze, its maker instead sought to portray such a king at the height of his power, projecting authority and stateliness. Sculpted heads such as this one were particularly valuable in Benin, and they have been collected widely by museums\u2014though there is now a push to start sending them back home. This head, along with many other objects collectively known as the Benin Bronzes, was stolen in 1897 when British troops pillaged Benin. The Met has returned just a few of its Benin Bronzes; this one remains in New York.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\t\u00ccgb\u00e8s\u00e0nmw\u00e0 artists, Pendant Mask of \u00ccy\u1ecd\u0301b\u00e0 Idi\u00e0, 16th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tAn iconic work of the Rockefeller Wing, this pendant mask may have depicted Idi\u00e0, the mother of Esigie, a ruler of the Kingdom of Benin during the 16th century. Esigie may have worn this ivory portrait of Idia, whose head is bordered at the bottom by bearded figures sculpted from coral, identified by the Met as Portuguese men who traded with the kingdom. (Mudfish, meanwhile, line the top of her head, forming a tiara of sorts.) The mask was plundered by British soldiers in 1897 along with a group of objects popularly known as the Benin Bronzes. In recent years, the Met has shown a willingness to repatriate some of the bronzes in its collection, sending a few home to Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\tDan artist, Wunkirmian or Wakemia Feasting Spoon, 19th to mid-20th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis spoon would have been used at feasts held by the Dan people in locales such as Liberia and C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. Anthropomorphized with a pair of legs jutting out of its bottom, the spoon represents a female figure, its concave upper portion standing in for a head. The abstracted human bodies of Dan spoons have intrigued legions of sculptors over the past century, from Alberto Giacometti to Simone Leigh, whose work for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale featured sculptures alluding to utensils similar to this one.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\tYombe-Kongo artist and nganga, Mangaaka Power Figure, ca. 1880\u20131900<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis power figure is known as a nkisi nkondi, a type of statuette produced by the Kongo people in the Congo region of Central Africa. The statuettes often contain nail-like pieces of metal driven through them and are crafted with the aim of warding off evil. For that reason, nkisi nkondi were thought to be vested with mythical power, able to protect those who possessed them. This one, a star of the Rockefeller Wing, features at its core an empty center that may have once been filled with medicinal matter, according to the Met.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\tYoruba bead artist, Ad\u00e9\u0144l\u00e1, late 19th\u2013early 20th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tAmong the great joys of the Met\u2019s 2025 rehang of its Rockefeller Wing was a new spotlight on Yoruba bead art, whose lushly colored glass elements combine to create astonishing abstract patterns and beguiling faces. The faces seen on this crown each have protruding eyes and thin smiles; the bands of red coloration punctuating their blue cheeks evince what is known as oj\u00fa-\u1ecdn\u00e0, or a kind of design sense unique to the Yoruba people of modern-day Nigeria. Though it\u2019s hard today to imagine donning an object so beautiful, this crown once sat upon a Yoruba leader\u2019s head and would have held herbal medicines provided by a priest.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\tMarshall Island artist, Rebbilib, 19th\u2013early 20th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThough it looks like some sort of proto-Minimalist sculpture, this object once functioned as a navigational chart for Marshallese people traversing the Pacific Ocean. How might it have been readable as a map? One possibility is that the gridded area in the center, formed form the midribs of coconut fronds tied together with fiber, may have referred to tidal phenomena in the ocean, and that its corners, which protrude outward, may have indicated the locations of islands. For the Marshall Islanders, this map could also have served as a teaching aid. For most contemporary viewers, however, it is virtually illegible\u2014and all the more fascinating because of it.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\tHeaddress Effigy, late 19th\u2013early 20th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tHard to believe, because it measures 15 feet tall, but this object once would have been worn atop one\u2019s head during harvest dances conducted by the Chachet Baining people in what is now Papua New Guinea. (Mercifully, it\u2019s made largely out of barkcloth, a relatively light material.) Known as a hareiga, this type of headdress is no longer in use by the Chachet Baining, and its exact purpose remains unknown. Still, it regularly lures admirers to the Rockefeller Wing, where for many years it was tilted menacingly over viewers. More recently, it has been encased in glass, to protect it from light damage.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Michael C. Rockefeller Wing<\/p>\n
\tHead of a Buddha, 5th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe quietest corners of the Asian art wing\u2014an expansive group of galleries where there tends to be less foot traffic than elsewhere\u2014provide some of this museum\u2019s great thrills. Here you can observe as cultures press up against one another, resulting in hybrid styles such as the one seen in this head of a Buddha, which may have come from Hadda, a Greco-Buddhist archaeological site in what is now Afghanistan. The almond-shaped eyes and long, thin eyebrows were stylistic touches in vogue at the time in India, a country located far from Afghanistan. That such flourishes traveled so many miles beyond their homeland testifies to a robust cross-national dialogue.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tStanding Ganesha, 7th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tNot so long before this sculpture was produced, Ganesha, the Hindu deity associated with removing obstacles, was often portrayed with an idealized body. But during the Pre-Angkor period, when this sculpture was made, artists started to depict Ganesha more naturalistically, which is why this version of the god with a human\u2019s body and an elephant\u2019s head remains so remarkable. Note the attention paid to his stomach, which bulges beneath a garment known as a sampot. Its unknown sculptor seems to be saying that Ganesha\u2019s body is subject to the same pressures of aging and time as the rest of us\u2014even if he is a divine being.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tChamunda, the Horrific Destroyer of Evil, 10th\u201311th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWere one to pick the scariest work on view at the Met, this sandstone sculpture of Chamunda, a Hindu goddess associated with vanquishing evil, would be a strong contender. With her sharp teeth and her tiara made from tiny skulls, this ancient Indian sculpture projects a fearsome presence\u2014and it would have only been more so in its original state, before some of its sculpted appendages were lost to time. According to the Met, this Chamunda once had 12 more arms, some of which held weapons.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tShiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja), 11th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBetween the 9th and 13th centuries, during the Chola dynasty in southern India, bronze sculpture underwent a mini-renaissance, spurring artisans to represent Hindu gods in ways that appeared more naturalistic than they had before. The Shiva Nataraja, a depiction of Shiva dancing with his hair flying out from his head, became one of the most popular representations of that sort to emerge from this era. Surrounded by a ring of fire known as a prabhamandala, this Shiva appears to persistently twirl, symbolizing the constant churn of time.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tBuddha of Medicine Bhaishajyaguru (Yaoshi fo), ca. 1319<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThere may be no larger painting regularly on view at the Met than this Yuan dynasty masterpiece, which, at 24 feet tall and 49 feet wide, acts as the central artwork around which all other pieces orbit in the Chinese art galleries. It depicts at its center Bhaishajyaguru (informally known as the \u201cMedicine Buddha\u201d), flanked by the bodhisattvas Candraprabha and Suryaprabha, as well as a range of other figures assembled to bear witness to Bhaishajyaguru\u2019s healing powers. Art historians have been unable to definitively nail down who painted this work, which would have looked even more formidable in its original setting at the Lower Guangsheng Temple in the Shanxi province. But it may have been done by Zhu Haogu, who was known for expansive murals like this one featuring Buddhas surrounded by clusters of bodhisattvas.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tFang Congyi, Cloudy Mountains, ca. 1360\u201370<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe leftmost portion of this Chinese scroll features a blank expanse with just the faintest hint of mountain peaks in the distance. It\u2019s a jarringly abstract image for a work that predates the modern era by around six centuries. But then again, Fang Congyi, the Daoist priest who painted this scroll, was interested in the intensity of human mortality, a topic that isn\u2019t always so easy to visualize. He was comfortable working in a figurative mode, too, of course: Using a brush loaded with ink, he here expressively rendered a temple, trees, and rock formations. At the time he made this work, the viewer would have started at that temple and gradually unrolled this scroll, viewing the piece from right to left. As one\u2019s eye journeyed toward the mountains, one would notice a shift in Fang\u2019s brushwork, which grows gradually looser and more unstable. In the end, his contemporaries were left with nothing much to see at all\u2014a reminder of their own limits in the face of sublime nature.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tTen Elements for the East Window of an Architectural Ensemble from a Jain Meeting Hall, ca. 1575\u20131600<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring the Mughal period, India\u2019s Gujarat state became the capital for an ornate kind of woodcarving that was used widely for sculptures and temple architecture. Remarkably, the Met is home to a particularly sizable example of that woodcarving: an entire dome, plus some accompanying balconies and supports, from a temple for followers of Jainism in Patan. Nearly every part of the teakwood surface is covered in images of deities, lotus flowers, and more. Dramatically lit and mounted on the museum\u2019s ceiling, this portion of the temple can be viewed from an elevated area of the Asian art wing.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tAstor Chinese Garden Court, in the style of the 17th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 1979 the Met engineered the first cultural agreement with China since the Communist Party rose to power, a deal that resulted in the making of this garden court. No, it is not an actual Ming Dynasty garden court, but its benefactor, Brooke Astor, conceived it as a faithful facsimile of one, complete with real Taihu rocks (eroded chunks of limestone studied by Chinese scholars), live bamboo, and a circular design seen widely in Chinese architecture of the era. Finished in 1981, the garden was considered a diplomatic feat during its day. Today it remains impressive both as a technical marvel and as a haven for those seeking a respite from the Met\u2019s busiest galleries.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tAmitabha, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land (Sukhavati), ca. 1700<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThough it stands less than five feet all, this painting conveys an impressive sense of scale, with legions of tiny people assembled to learn the teachings of Amitabha, the Buddha of infinite life in Tibetan Buddhism. Known as a thangka, this work was painted on cloth in vibrant blues and reds. It\u2019s loaded so densely with detail that one may miss some of its most minute particularities, such as the ducks that swim in a river alongside the men who\u2019ve waded into it.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\tOgata K\u014drin, Rough Waves, ca. 1704\u20139<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tOgata K\u014drin renders the crashing surf of an unsettled ocean with elegance, outlining the crests of his waves in thin washes of ink. Such grace may seem at odds with his subject matter: Why represent nature\u2019s unforgiving churn as though it were a beautiful thing to behold? Because that clash between opulence and terror makes this folding screen a star of the Met\u2019s galleries for Japanese art.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Asian Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tHelmet (Zukinnari Kabuto), 16th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tArt took an extravagant turn in 16th-century Japan during the Momoyama period, when the powerful daimyo (feudal lords) began adorning the spaces they inhabited with lush folding screens marked by their use of gold accents. Gold was also used prominently for this helmet, which was lacquered using a technique known as tataki-nuri, which yields an uneven texture that causes the gold to look like fabric. Attached to the helmet is a spray of licking flames and a representation of the Buddhist god Acana, who here brandishes a sword. To wear the helmet must have felt empowering; to look at it is glorious.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Arms and Armor Galleries<\/p>\n
\tFolio from the Blue Qur\u2019an, second half 9th century\u2013mid-10th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 100 or so remaining folios of the Blue Qur\u2019an, one of the most famous versions of the core text of Islam, have been dispersed across the world, making the one from which this page is taken a valuable cornerstone of the Met\u2019s Islamic art holdings. Produced in Tunisia, this Qur\u2019an featured parchment pages memorably dyed with indigo. Onto those deep-blue backgrounds, its maker spelled out a portion of the 30th sura\u2014a verse that describes the Byzantine\u2013Sasanian War\u2014in Kufic calligraphy rendered in gold and silver. The work retains its shine more than 10 centuries on.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tBowl with Arabic Inscription, 10th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tSamanid pottery is prized today for the clarity of the forms painted by its makers, who were able to work with such precision because they coated their red earthenware in slip combined with pigment. The white slip utilized here lends this bowl a minimalism that feels jarringly contemporary. Adding to its visual impact is the calligraphy that rings its border, which, unlike the text of the Blue Qur\u2019an folio, is so stylized that it verges on illegibility, the letters\u2019 curves and points rendered in such a manner that they nearly become abstract. Those letters spell out words to the wise: \u201cPlanning before work protects you from regret; prosperity and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tMihrab, 1354\u201355<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe words of the Prophet Muhammad nearly melt into abstraction in this glorious prayer niche known as a mihrab, which was once sited in a madrasa\u2014an Islamic school\u2014in the Iranian city of Isfahan. Surrounding that text, which is written in Kufic script on the white border lining the mihrab\u2019s inner arch, are flowers that are themselves encased in another band of text quoting the Qur\u2019an. Those letters loop and curve in the same way as the rosettes seen amid the indigo tilework all around them, hypnotizing the eye while also offering much for followers of Islam to meditate on. Its maker clearly drew no division between holy teachings and the world they were meant to shape.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia Galleries<\/p>\n
\tTughra of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, ca. 1555\u20131560<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Islamic art galleries have many examples of texts filled with Arabic cursive that curlicues and coils. But on the basis of sheer elegance, this tughra\u2014or royal insignia\u2014for Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent is the high-water mark here, its diwani cursive offering up letters that loop back before dramatically jutting across the page. This kind of cursive was hard to read and even harder to copy, reinforcing the idea that Suleiman was unequaled. The smaller letters at the bottom spell out an inscription that underlines the notion: \u201cSultan S\u00fcleyman Khan, the son of Sultan Selim Khan, may his reign endure forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia Galleries<\/p>\n
\tAttributed to Bhawani Das, Great Indian Fruit Bat, ca. 1777\u201382<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBhawani Das, the artist who likely made this work, trained in Mughal painting before creating images for the Impey Album, a group of paintings commissioned by Elijah and Mary Impey, British-born patrons who wanted to take stock of their menagerie in Calcutta. If Das really did make this painting, his training would explain its unusual attention to detail, with each piece of fur clearly delineated. But it\u2019s the bat\u2019s eyes that are the center of attention here. Represented with a certain glassiness that causes them to glint, the eyes seem to convey the kinds of emotions typically afforded only to human subjects.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia Galleries<\/p>\n
\tVirgin and Child in Majesty, ca. 1175\u20131200<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis wood sculpture, of a type known as a Throne of Wisdom, depicts the Christ Child seated in the Virgin Mary\u2019s lap\u2014but despite this Christ having a juvenile\u2019s body, his face looks unusually adult, perhaps to denote the sagacity he had already displayed at such a young age. Carved in medieval France, it is today prized for its unusual stylings, with the folds of the Virgin Mary\u2019s dress represented here by rippling wood ridges. Once owned by none other than the prominent financier J. Pierpont Morgan, it\u2019s now a star of the medieval art wing, where it even manages to outshine the enormous choir screen at the galleries\u2019 center.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Medieval Galleries<\/p>\n
\tArm Reliquary, 13th century<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to popular lore, contained within this metal sculpture of an arm are objects that once touched an actual arm\u2014the arm of a saint, that is. You can\u2019t see those objects today, of course, because they are stowed away inside this reliquary, which is thought to have been produced somewhere in medieval France. You couldn\u2019t have seen them back then, either, when reliquaries like this one would have been set on an altar and venerated by the public. But you can, at least, still marvel at the metalwork on display and the rock crystal insets on the object\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Medieval Galleries<\/p>\n
\tShrine of the Virgin, ca. 1300<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen it is exhibited closed, this devotional object, known in its native Germany as a Schreinmadonna, looks modest, appearing to be little more than a plain sculpture of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child suckling at her bosom. Once opened, however, it reveals its magic, showcasing a seated adult Christ surrounded by painted images of narratives from throughout his life. Such an unusual, beautiful object does not look out of place at a magnificent museum like the Met, but its original home may have been something humbler: a nunnery in the Rhineland region, where it would have been worshiped as part of a daily prayer ritual.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Medieval Galleries<\/p>\n
\tT\u2019oros the Deacon, Transfiguration, 1311<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWhereas many Christian manuscripts at the Met feature white figures, this one is dominated by blue-skinned versions of Christ and his disciples\u2014a hallmark of the manuscripts produced in Armenia by T\u2019oros the Deacon during the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Might T\u2019oros the Deacon have based his beloved blues on the similarly hued sculptures of gods being produced by peoples located eastward? If so, his manuscript attests to the rich confluence of cultural influences found in Asia at the time, reworking centuries-old Christian imagery via the stylings of art coming out of China and Mongolia.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Medieval Galleries<\/p>\n
\tAndrea della Robbia, Virgin and Child, ca. 1470\u201375<\/p>\n
\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tTalent is sometimes said to run in the family, and that was certainly the case for the Della Robbias. Luca della Robbia gained a reputation for his terracotta sculptures, which were often glazed in rich shades of blue, and he clearly imparted some of his wisdom to his nephew Andrea, who built on Luca\u2019s achievements in works such as this one. Andrea\u2019s results were in some ways even more exquisite than his uncle\u2019s: He left his figures entirely white, such that they contrast even more sharply with the blue glaze that acts as a background. Here the background is hardly static, however. The sculptor pictures God and a quartet of angels peering down from the clouds above, which Della Robbia represents as ridges that extend from the work\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: The Great Hall<\/p>\n
\tGiovanni di Paolo, The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise, 1445<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIf God forced you out of Paradise, how might you flee? Most would probably go in haste, and with no small amount of anxiety, but the Adam and Eve represented in this painting, originally part of an altarpiece for a Sienese church, leave Eden with little smiles on their faces\u2014a strange flourish that suggests they are delighted by the knowledge they\u2019ve obtained. In general, the painting is quite weird. (How can you miss the Creation narrative visualized to Adam and Eve\u2019s left, in which an angel rolls along a boulderlike globe containing the zodiac, mountains, and more?) But weirdness ought not to be confused with poor quality, and the painting, with its lush blue skies and verdant lemon trees, is undeniably one of the more elegant treasures in the Robert Lehman Collection, a luxurious, sun-splashed area of the Met that looks like no other part of the museum.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Robert Lehman Collection<\/p>\n
\tPetrus Christus, Portrait of a Carthusian, 1446<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tUnlike their Italian peers, who relied on tempera, northern Renaissance painters such as Petrus Christus utilized oil paint to represent their subjects with a previously impossible level of detail\u2014hence Christus\u2019s ability to represent every scraggly strand of this monk\u2019s beard, every long eyelash, every blond eyebrow hair. Christus appears to have been aware of just how real his image seemed and even played into it, painting onto this portrait an extraordinarily realistic frame that purports to show signs of wear. Etched into that painted frame, however, is a reminder that this object is an artwork, not the embodiment of a human being. \u201cPetrus Christus made me in the year 1446,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Robert Lehman Collection<\/p>\n
\tSandro Botticelli, The Annunciation, ca. 1485\u201392<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tUnlike Botticelli\u2019s two best-known works\u2014The Birth of Venus and Primavera, both at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence\u2014The Annunciation doesn\u2019t announce itself as a masterpiece; it\u2019s much smaller than those two other great paintings and much quieter, too. But what it lacks in visual drama, it makes up for in compositional flare, with Botticelli using one-point perspective to extend this sparsely decorated room back in space. Both the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary are shown kneeling on either side of a row of pillars that divides this room in two. Yet a divine emanation coming in through a window guides the eye across the partition, and Botticelli renders an otherworldly glow in lines formed from actual gold, causing the painting to gleam. The work, now located in the Met\u2019s Robert Lehman Collection, may once have been used as a devotional painting; viewing it remains a spiritual experience.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Robert Lehman Collection<\/p>\n
\tJean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Jos\u00e9phine-\u00c9l\u00e9onore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de B\u00e9arn, Princesse de Broglie, 1851\u201353<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tJean Auguste Dominique Ingres\u2019s almost invisible brushwork causes this portrait of a French aristocrat to look nearly photographic. The Neoclassicist painter highlights the sheen of her gold evening shawl and the lushness of her blue dress and asks us to imagine all the money that would have been spent acquiring clothes so refined as these. Fittingly, the painting was once held by a modern patrician, the banker Robert Lehman, who bequeathed most of his collection to the Met. The museum now hosts an entire wing dedicated to the bequest, with this Ingres painting acting as its crown jewel.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Robert Lehmann Collection<\/p>\n
\tAttributed to Jean-Baptiste Voboam, Guitar, 1697<\/p>\n
\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tPerhaps the Met will always be best known for its multitude of paintings and sculptures, and deservedly so. But its wing for musical instruments offers a compelling case study in how violins, organs, harpsichords, drums, and the like can also rise to the status of art when produced in particularly beautiful ways. Such is the case with this guitar, whose sides are inlaid with gorgeous, reddish tortoiseshell. Five strings would have originally run down this guitar\u2019s neck, but with those strings now absent, one can get an unbroken glimpse into its ornate sound hole shaped like a star.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: Musical Instruments Galleries<\/p>\n
\tDuccio, Madonna and Child, ca. 1290\u20131300<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 13th-century Italy, Duccio started rewriting the rules of painting by pulling Christian subject matter down to earth, depicting biblical characters as though they were just as human as the rest of us. In this painting, he shows the baby Christ brushing the Virgin Mary\u2019s veil to the side, effectively revealing her majesty to both himself and the viewer. Though mother and son are set against a gold-leafed background that appears removed from our world, Duccio also pictures them before a parapet similar to ones seen around Siena at the time\u2014a detail that suggests they belong to the very same space as we do. In 2004 the Met paid a hefty $45 million to acquire the piece, making it one of the most expensive works ever bought by the museum. Not a penny was wasted.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tGiotto di Bondone, The Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1320<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tPicking up where Sienese painters like Duccio left off, the Florence-based Giotto further pulled Christian subject matter down to earth by psychologizing each person he represented, suggesting that biblical figures were just as human as the rest of us. Note the attention to the caring gaze of the Virgin Mary, the ability to individuate each of the angels soaring above\u2014these are trademark Giotto flourishes that made him one of the great painters of the pre-Renaissance era, and they\u2019ve been taken up here by one of his followers. Painted for a Franciscan church, the work belongs to a series of seven highly valuable paintings narrating episodes from Christ\u2019s life. Most of the remaining six reside in collections far beyond New York.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tPieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters, 1565<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tUnderstandably, the grand Tiepolo painting that greets viewers entering the European paintings wing gets a lot of attention. But head just a couple galleries further in and you will find a true star in this plainspoken landscape. Like most of Bruegel\u2019s finest paintings, this one situates a smattering of tiny figures\u2014harvesters of hay in this instance\u2014within a vast Flemish landscape. Bruegel lavishes attention on every laborer seen here: the ones hard at work cutting down hay, the ones tying it into shocks, the ones on break feasting beneath a tree. Off in the distance, there are yet more figures who play a ball game while the harvesters go about their jobs. They are tinier and harder to see than the harvesters, but the fact that they exist at all feels like a little miracle, a hint that an entire world exists beyond the frame of Bruegel\u2019s picture.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tEl Greco, View of Toledo, ca. 1599\u20131600<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Met owns so many topnotch El Greco paintings that it has devoted nearly an entire gallery to them. All of those works merit extended viewing, but the one that deserves special attention is this landscape, one of the two remaining paintings by El Greco that depict the Spanish city where he was based. As in his other paintings, the mood is dark, and nothing feels static. Trees, bushes, and entire hillsides appear to sway beneath cloudy skies; a cathedral and some accompanying buildings cling to the ground as if for dear life. This is decidedly not what Toledo actually looked like, of course, but rather a subjective perspective on the landscape. That may be why El Greco felt he had permission to disturb traditional notions of perspective. No surprise that El Greco gained a devoted fan in Picasso three centuries later.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tAnthony van Dyck, Lucas van Uffel, 1622<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tGreat portraitists can convey entire personalities in a single image, and Anthony van Dyck accomplished just that here. Lucas van Uffel was a Flemish merchant who amassed a significant art collection. Van Dyck presents his subject as a man of letters, casting him alongside a globe and some ruffled papers. But more than merely capturing Van Uffel\u2019s worldliness, Van Dyck succeeds in portraying the intensity of his sitter\u2019s psychology. Rather than depicting a seated Van Uffel, as so many other portraitists might have done, Van Dyck paints the precise moment that Van Uffel begins to scoot back his chair and rise from his desk. As he twists his body, his eyes meet ours, creating the sense that this patron is engaged in the same kind of deep looking that is essential for artists, critics, curators, and collectors across the world.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Wing<\/p>\n
\tFrans Hals, Young Man and Woman in an Inn, 1623<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tHas there ever been a painter better at portraying drunkenness than Frans Hals? The Dutchman displayed his chops for that subject in works such as this one, in which an inebriated woman with flushed cheeks places an arm around a grinning man raising a glass. Their facial expressions suggest the kind of uninhibited joy often seen at parties, but this is not quite a bacchanal; their drinking spot is a sparsely furnished tavern adorned with just a couple of landscape paintings. Hals commonly represented spaces like this interior, which recognizably belongs to his time and place, and in doing so established himself as one of the great genre painters of the Dutch Golden Age.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tDiego Vel\u00e1zquez, Juan de Pareja, 1650<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis Diego Vel\u00e1zquez portrait has been a beloved fixture of the Met\u2019s European paintings galleries ever since the museum paid $5.5 million for it in 1971. But only recently has the painting\u2019s sitter received due attention. He is Juan de Pareja, a painter who was born enslaved and was a member of Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s household. Pareja went on to work in Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s workshop, though Vel\u00e1zquez did not begin the process of freeing him until 1650. Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s portrait of Pareja has always been admired for its inky black background and the white strokes delineating where light hits Pareja\u2019s skin (which Pareja himself portrayed as being darker in at least one of his works). But in 2023, when the Met staged a show specifically about Pareja, the painting gained new admiration as a crucial document of the racial tensions of its era.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tRembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1660<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRembrandt was in his mid-50s by the time he painted this self-portrait, and his age shows\u2014his eyes sag, his hair has gone gray, and his forehead has gained creases that were not there in previous self-portraits. Pictured against the brown background that recurs throughout the images he made of himself, Rembrandt casts himself as a painter of darkness who has begun to recede into it, perhaps because he knows he is approaching the later stages of his career. Ironically, the painting is just as notable for the ways that Rembrandt captures glimmers of light, with the tip of his ruddy nose catching so much illumination that it appears to shine.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tGerard ter Borch, Curiosity, ca. 1660\u201362<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tMost of Gerard ter Borch\u2019s paintings are unusually spare, with one or just a few figures set before mostly blank backgrounds, plus a few props to accompany his characters. The minimalism of his approach goes a long way, for it heightens the delicious\u2014and deliciously underplayed\u2014psychological drama of his tableaux. This painting takes its name from the nosy woman leaning over to get a look at a seemingly private letter being written by a female colleague. But what kind of letter is this, and who is its recipient? And who are these women, anyway? Ter Borch leaves those questions open, anticipating the similarly cryptic (and similarly sparse) works of later painters such as \u00c9douard Manet, who would utilize the constraints of genre painting to needle accepted artistic conventions.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tJohannes Vermeer, Allegory of the Catholic Faith, ca. 1670\u201372<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tPicking a favorite among the five Johannes Vermeer paintings owned by the Met is an unfair task\u2014they\u2019re all great. But if you can spend time with just one, make it Allegory of the Catholic Faith, a painting that exhibits Vermeer\u2019s flare for capturing light pouring into cloistered domestic spaces while also constructing a fascinating allegory. The allegory here concerns the value of piety, with the woman at the center acting as Faith personified. The painting abounds in visual rhymes: A sculpted crucifix mirrors a painting of Christ nailed to the cross, a curtain echoes the curve of Faith\u2019s body, a glass orb mirrors the globe beneath Faith\u2019s feet. In creating so many parallels, Vermeer suggests that one\u2019s religiosity does not take place merely inside one\u2019s heart or mind\u2014it also informs an entire worldview.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tMargareta Haverman, A Vase of Flowers, 1716<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIn recent years, the Met has begun placing due emphasis on previously overlooked female Old Masters, spotlighting rare and remarkable paintings that, in some cases, have spent years languishing in storage. But this still life is rarer than most of those other works, given that it\u2019s one of just two extant paintings by Margareta Haverman, who worked in the Dutch Republic during the 18th century. Because of the painting\u2019s title, we know there\u2019s a vase somewhere beneath this cascade of blossoms, but the blooms are so extravagant that we can\u2019t even see the vessel. In that way, it\u2019s a shining example of still lifes of its era, which were sometimes meant as reminders of all that could be foraged in a world that was growing ever wider, in part because of Dutch colonial efforts abroad.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tAntoine Watteau, Mezzetin, ca. 1718\u201320<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s sad but true: the Met is not the best museum in New York for Rococo painting. (That would be the Frick Collection, which has Jean-Honor\u00e9 Fragonard\u2019s entire Progress of Love cycle.) Still, the museum does have a few gems related to the 18th-century French art movement, among them this Antoine Watteau painting of Mezzetino, a Harlequin-like stock character associated with commedia dell\u2019arte. He\u2019s shown here playing his guitar and singing forlornly, perhaps about a love interest who does not share his affection\u2014Watteau poses him beside a statue of Venus, with her back toward Mezzetino. The painting is a standout example of Rococo art, whose pastel-colored meditations on ribaldry seduce viewers before denying them easy satisfaction.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tJean-Baptiste Greuze, Broken Eggs, 1756<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tEven to contemporary eyes, it\u2019s obvious that this painting is about more than just a basketful of cracked eggs and the young girl who was holding them; the work feels far more serious than the\u00a0 situation would merit. Back when Jean-Baptiste Greuze painted it, Broken Eggs would have been received as an allegory about virginity lost and innocence spoiled, hence the girl\u2019s embarrassed look as she is castigated. Greuze was one of the great painters of genre scenes in 18th-century France; today, many of his moralizing messages feel dated. But even if Broken Eggs\u2019s subject matter seems stodgy, his dynamic composition does not.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\n\tNot currently on view.<\/p>\n
\tUnknown, Our Lady of Valvanera, ca. 1770\u201380<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tOf all the great recent donations to the Met, perhaps the greatest was a 2018 gift of 10 paintings by Cuzco School artists, who translated Catholic styles derived from Europe for an Andean audience. Among them was this painting, which refers to a legend from Spain: A thief named Nu\u00f1o O\u00f1ez was trying to pilfer goods from a farmer when he happened upon an angel, who revealed to him a sculpture of Our Lady of Valvanera in a tree. The transcendence of Catholicism now revealed to him, Nu\u00f1o changed his ways and became a hermit; the painting depicts the seeds of that fervor being planted inside him. The astonishing canvas, filled with soaring birds and lined with gold leaf, recently made its debut in the European paintings wing, a sign that the Met has begun to acknowledge the ways that European styles extended far beyond the continent itself.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere to find it: European Paintings Galleries<\/p>\n
\tAd\u00e9la\u00efde Labille-Guiard, Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond, 1785<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n