I spent a part of my recent vacation/study leave time traveling
to New York City to visit the Cloisters Museum. This branch of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art is located at the very northern tip of Manhattan, in a park up on
bluff overlooking the Hudson River.
The Cloisters is a reconstruction from ruins of several
different medieval monasteries. There are columns, stones, windows and other structures
from monasteries built in France and Spain that date back as far as the 11th
century. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was the driving force behind the
creation of Colonial Williamsburg, was also the one who led the creation of the
Cloisters in the late 1930s.
The museum provides the ideal setting for the display of devotional
works of art from the 11th through 16th centuries: stained
glass, sculpture, altarpieces, illuminated manuscripts and prayer books fill
the rooms just as they once did in chapels and other rooms that were part of many
different European abbeys. To walk through the Cloisters is to walk back in time, as
though you are cowled and tonsured, a part of community gathered in the 14th
century to worship God through Jesus Christ.
Few people could read and only priests had access to the Bible,
so churches and monasteries commissioned paintings, sculpture and other works
of art to tell stories from the Bible. The birth narrative has always been a
popular subject for artisans of all kinds; the Cloisters is filled with artworks
devoted to our Lord’s birth. Among the many beautiful pieces was a stained
glass panel from the 1500s featuring the visit of the Magi.
Tapestries
had become popular by the end of the 15th century and there are a number
of exquisite tapestries hanging in the museum. One large one, dating from 1500,
traces the life of Mary with extraordinary color and the detail captured by needle
and thread.
My
favorite piece was a whimsical statue of Jesus astride a donkey, hearing the
crowds shout out “Hosanna!” on that first Palm Sunday. The statue was mounted
on a cart, clearly designed to be part of a Palm Sunday parade – a joyous,
noisy celebration in an otherwise quiet monastic community.
I will
lead an Adult Education class on Sunday morning at a later date to share more
pictures from this extraordinary museum. Come join me as we look and learn how
Christians through the centuries found ways to give expression to their faith,
praising God, even as we do today, with beauty and our creativity.
Grace
& peace,
Pastor Skip
