: Midsummer at the Met :
I spent a lovely day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in celebration of Midsummer today (Wednesday). We made it a point to visit some of the rooms that we normally miss when we go to see our favorites. We saw a very cool temporary exhibit called AngloMania which highlighted British fashion over the last 30 years - everything from formal gowns to crazy punk rock outfits. There's also an exhibit of an Egyptian ruler named Hatshepsut the great female pharaoh of Egypt's 18th dynasty who ruled for 20 years.
The coolest thing I found today was a room in the Frank Lloyd Wright wing that was a 360 degree painting from the Palace and Gardens of Versailles in France. The artist stood in the middle of the formal gardens behind the palace and painted two massive curved canvases, totaling 165 feet in length. One showed the view of the rear of the palace, and the other showed the gardens, cone-shaped trees and fountains stretching down the hill and the countryside in the distance. If you stood in the middle of the room and looked around, it was almost like being there. I have actually visited that palace in France many years ago, but when I went it was winter and it was not as green and lush as the painting portrays. But it was a wonderful experience of deja vu seeing it again.
There is also a lovely exhibition of works by Raphael (scroll down for the link from the special exhibits page) that just started yesterday. We came across it near closing time, so we decided that we're going to go back so we can do justice to that one next time. I'm looking forward to seeing that.
The coolest thing I found today was a room in the Frank Lloyd Wright wing that was a 360 degree painting from the Palace and Gardens of Versailles in France. The artist stood in the middle of the formal gardens behind the palace and painted two massive curved canvases, totaling 165 feet in length. One showed the view of the rear of the palace, and the other showed the gardens, cone-shaped trees and fountains stretching down the hill and the countryside in the distance. If you stood in the middle of the room and looked around, it was almost like being there. I have actually visited that palace in France many years ago, but when I went it was winter and it was not as green and lush as the painting portrays. But it was a wonderful experience of deja vu seeing it again.
There is also a lovely exhibition of works by Raphael (scroll down for the link from the special exhibits page) that just started yesterday. We came across it near closing time, so we decided that we're going to go back so we can do justice to that one next time. I'm looking forward to seeing that.
