Musings from the MET (Steve Lang)

I visited the MET last weekend and saw some good things and some bad. First, I saw that they have a laminated card to the left and right of their wall painting. You could take the card and then stand back from the actual painting and read what it had to say.


The card had a diagram of the painting itself and identified the figures in the painting:


Our paintings in the Rotunda are very similar and could benefit from a similar set up. Currently you have to read the label close up and then take a step back to see the whole painting. Would people walk off with them?

I went through the rest of the Asian section, impressed by the collection. However when I got to the end of the Asian galleries, what did I see? This:

Objects in an elevator! That must be one smooth ride.

I also took a look at the Ur-nammu Stele:

I blew right past it because I thought it would be bigger having seen the 10 ft. reproduction, but eventually I found it and took a picture of it. Looking at this photo, I wish the steles in the Rotunda had enough lighting so you could see the inscriptions, but we also have paintings hanging in there so that could be an issue.

We originally had lights on the back of C284 but they actually blinded you from reading the inscription instead of illuminating it. Lesson learned: Lighting is crucial. Perhaps we could have laminated sheets with the inscriptions? But scholars really want to see the actual inscription, I'm still thinking about it.

___________________________________________________


As a side note, if you want to subscribe to the blog as an RSS feed, you can go to the bottom of the page where it says: Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) Right click on the Posts (Atom) part and click copy link location. You can then paste that into any RSS feeder. I am using the one in Thunderbird, my mail client, but you can use others.