Museum Experience

On Sunday October 16th, my family and I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art located in New York City. Although I am from New York, I had never visited the museum before and so I was extremely eager and excited. I was amazed as I pulled up to the entrance of the museum. It was enormous! The architecture of the museum was astonishing. With the help of one of the very kind curators, I was directed toward the Italian Renaissance exhibit. The Italian Renaissance was a period of great cultural change and achievement that began in Italy during the late 14th century and lasted until the 16th century. Renaissance is a French word meaning rebirth. The Renaissance was the revival or cultural awareness among many things for example, art, literature, …show more content…
I enjoyed the detailed toy like landscape. There appears to be a man fishing with a long spear, a woman fetching water, two horses, and two workmen crossing a bridge. It is said that if you look closely at the farthest bridge in the background there are also two African Americans fishing. Like many other wealthy Florentines, Filippo Strozzi owned at least one African slave (“Madonna and Child”). Filippino Lippi also uses the technique of atmospheric perspective, a technique of rendering depth or distance in painting by modifying the tone or hue. There appears to be mountains in the distance as well as a building. I loved the artist 's use of the the beautiful curved arches which stand behind the subjects. The Strozzi coat of arms with the crescent moon appears both on the roundel on the arch and on the capital of the column on the left. As I analyzed the painting I felt a sense of nurturing and gentleness between Mary and Infant Jesus. The artist 's use of contrapposto creates a human like appearance and figure. It appears that Mary is supporting baby jesus in order to sit him up. One of her hands is placed under infant jesus armpit and the other on his lower right leg. It appears that baby Jesus is intrigued and eager to flip through the pages of the book placed in front of him. The theme of the Christ Child fingering or reading from a book was extremely popular in Florence, one of the most famous examples being Botticelli 's Madonna della Magnificat (“Madonna and Child”). The emotion of both Mary and Jesus appear content. I found the detail in both of the subjects hair as well as the halos fascinating. He gives a beautiful light blonde tint to infant Jesus’s curly locks, as well as Mary 's orange toned hair. Filippino Lippi portrays the halos as somewhat translucent but gives them a shade of gold