What to See at the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Behind the Masterpiece

by Panzer
Each year, more than seven million people from all over the world visit
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Walking amongst some of the important pieces that span history.
This 2.2 million square feet space houses 17 curatorial department and holds over 2 million
works of art in its permanent collection.
You can see more masterpieces within this one space in one visit, than most people do in a lifetime.
It is impossible to sum up the history, collections, and the legacy of the MET, but to
help guide your trip, here are 5 pieces that might make you view the MET and its art, in new light.
This is the Temple of Dendur,
one of the most beautiful and special rooms to experience on your visit.
It was ordered to be built by Emperor Augustus —The Roman governor of Egypt— in 23 BC,
and its construction lasted for while, about 1,300 years.
During his reign, Augustus had many temples erected honoring Egyptian deities.
This temple in particular, was built to honour the goddess Isis, as well as Pedesi and Pihor,
two heroic Nubian brothers turned demigods. Originally the temple stood on a large
sandstone platform above the Nile River. It was brought to the MET in 1965 when the area
was flooded by a dam project, and so a campaign was launched to save the Nubian monuments of
the region, one of which was this small temple. In order to be transported, it was disassembled
brick-by-brick, numbered, and put back together at the MET.
It’s important to note that contrary to popular belief, Egyptian temples were not solely made to
house images of mythological or religious figures.
More often than not, they reflected an image of the natural world, in addition to depictions of deities.
Like here! The water running alongside the temple is meant to portray the Nile River.
On the inner lining of the temple, there are carvings of papyrus and lotus
plants that are growing from water. As we gaze upwards, we can see these
two columns rising to the sky like stalks of papyrus with lotus blossoms bound around them.
Above the gate and temple entrances, we can see images of the sun disk with the wings of Horus,
a sky god who often takes the shape of a falcon.
On the outside of the walls, we can see carved scenes that depict Augustus as a Pharaoh, wearing traditional regalia as he makes
offerings to gods who hold scepters and the ankh, the symbol of life.
The gods being Isis, Osiris, their son Horus, and the other deities
who are identified by their crowns and the inscriptions beside their figures.
Should we have had the chance to witness this temple in its original glory, and outdoors, we
would see how beautifully the glowing Egyptian sun would cast shadows onto these important figures.
This painting is one of the most famous pieces of Neoclassicism,
an 18th-century art movement based on the ideals of Rome and Ancient Greece.
It depicts the story of the execution of the greek philosopher Socrates,
as told by Plato in his book Phaedo. The story goes like this.
Socrates was sentences to death for corrupting the youth of Athens. Yet, knowing his life will
soon end as he prepares to drink poison hemlock, he doesn’t renounce his beliefs.