My visit to the Met.

   Upon first entering the metropolitan museum, I was in awe of how big of big the structure was, there was so many things to look at, all at the same time, I couldn’t focus my attention on one specific thing. The physical space was huge, but due to the crowd it made it really tight. As soon as I got inside the museum I got really hot, I immediate took my jacket off. There was a lot of people, mostly tourist and it was hard to walk by them. Leaving the crowd behind,  I pushed forward to the specific spot of the museum, the Egyptian Art. I used a map to guide myself.

It was incredible to see such a large area of the museum dedicated to one specific thing and culture. The criteria covered in class was  finally put into use in the “real world” that I could see for myself! It was time to get to work and engage with the work.  I skimmed and overlooked multiple arts, trying to make some connections with the pictures and sculptures, I analyze the picture and then read labels, but I felt lost!, there was so much to see in the museum and so much history behind every piece that I felt trap. So I decided to join a gallery talk, they expanded my view of the collections and exhibitions by telling stories and by making a little trip around the Egyptian Art.

I primarily used contextual analysis in the group. We looked at the work and learned incredible things about the history behind each art in detail of why and where each art was made. The pace that we looked and analyze each object was around 4 to 5 minutes.  In every stop, the guide taught us a little story related to the piece of art, he asked us questions, and we we’re able to express our ideas. From the guide I learn  that “Museums confirms what we know it’s true”. We had always been told stories of events that happened in life, In a museum we are able to see and relate to them.

In  the Egyptian Art, I learn  that  back then, Egypt  used to have lots of Gods that represented different things, something curious was that all Gods belong to the death and during the ten plagues each God of Egypt was humiliated. In between those God, I was able to see a real sculpture of  Hathor a holy bull. the sculpture  had a lot of light and there was a blue wall behind. I found it really helpful  the way in which the museum presented the work because  there was a lot of space to move around the objects and you can could extremely get close to the work, of course you were not allow to touch it. As I got a closer look , I was able to see a round circle on the head. After reading the labels and later  explained by the guide I learn  that each God was unique because they had a solar  disk  on top of their heads. Hathor represented the God of music, love and joy. We can relate to Hathor  in today’s society by the zodiac sign Taurus. Still some how, people believe in Hathor because many believe in what  their Zodiac sign says.

Another magnificent thing I was able to see and engage with , in the museum was an actual real mummy. There was a  glass wall protecting the mummy, but you could perfectly see every detail also there was a lot of light.  At first, this mummy  seemed like the other mummy's I had previously observed,  but as I looked closely and analyze it with the group,  We saw that the mummy was laying on the side and there was a mirror, after reading the labels and discussing in the group, I  learn  that this was so the mummy could see the evil spirits  that were coming. Also as we keep observing the mummy we saw that coffin had some eyes drawn to it. Now day’s we can relate to those eyes as the “evil eye”. The same eyes are also seen now days in the dollar bill. The financial status on this world was linked to the status on the after life. Many believe that in the after death, they can become Goddess. “ A lot of the things we see today, have deep roots”  said The guide. People often don’t realize what they are surrender off.

Something that really caught my attention was a tomb in the wall, At first It look normal but as I started to walk around and see the details I saw a whole in the wall, when I looked inside there was a little statue. The guide then explained that spirits couldn't  rest without their body's, so they came up with the statue to replace the body. It was also a tradition for them  to place food outside the tomb. Same traditions are often seen in today’s society, people still place flowers in the tombs. Also many cultures feed the spirits, one example would be in  Halloween.

As I wander around, I saw some jars they looked really beautiful, perfect to decorate a house, After reading the label and learning about the story I completely change my mind. Back in Egypt those jars were use for organs. As a symbolic process, organs were placed in the jars in order to protect the soul, This jars were later buried with the mummy. Believe it or not, they dint only had mummy's for humans, but also for animals, the most worship animal was the cat. 

Back then, they also  used to bury slaves alive so they could serve their masters in the after life; Instead of this they started to bury objects that represented the things they wanted as a preparation for the after life. The picture bellow represents some of this objects. 

Finally I left the Egyptian Art, and moved to different places of the museum where I could analyze Art by myself. I skimmed and overlooked multiple arts, In different floors  trying to make some connections with the pictures. Until I got to the American Art where I focus all my attention in one specific picture. The Ark by Lodewijk Tieling 1695-1700. 

On this artwork, I look using formal and stylistic analysis. I focused my attention on the elements that were used to convey meaning, on this case was nature. I strongly made a connection with this art because I love nature. Nature arose emotion on me. I looked closely at the picture for 3 minutes. With carefully looking I saw that there was multiple of animals, of different species, and only few people. Each animal seemed to have a pair, there was also different kinds of birds and at the very end there was a huge ark. By the light in the sky, It seemed like It was sunset. The frame of the picture was Coldish and the picture was also place in a yellow wall, however all the light in the picture seemed to be concentrated in the center. By all this factors It looked like the author wanted to make us think of the time of the picture  and the importance of nature.