A group of 20 students from SJNY Long Island’s Honors Program recently visited the Met Cloisters, a museum in New York City that specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods.
Chaperoned by James Blakely, Ph.D., professor and chair of history, and Wendy Turgeon, Ph.D., professor and chair of philosophy, the group spent time viewing the museum’s large collection of medieval artworks shown in the architectural settings of French monasteries and abbeys. Governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the buildings are centered around four cloisters—the Cuxa, Saint-Guilhem, Bonnefont and Trie—that were acquired by American sculptor and art dealer George Grey Barnard in France before 1913.
The museum also contains medieval gardens and a series of chapels and themed galleries, holding approximately 5,000 works of art and architecture, all European and mostly dating from the Byzantine to the early Renaissance periods, mainly during the 12th through 15th centuries. The works include stone and wood sculptures, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, and panel paintings.
Most of the students who attended are currently enrolled in an SJNY honors course on the philosophy and history of Medieval Europe.
