FRIGHT NIGHT TOUR OF THE MET
Take the fright night tour of the metropolitian
Do you think of the Met as all Classical nudes and Renaissance Madonnas? Well, look again! In the obscure and hidden corners of the museum there’s a world of strange, unusual and sometimes chilling artifacts—things you’d never imagine are hiding in plain sight.
But they form part of our heritage, and reveal things about us that are a counterpoint to our traditional views about what constitutes art. On this intriguing two-hour tour you’ll:
· Encounter the Met’s surprisingly large collection of corpses;
· Learn about the vases in which the ancient Egyptians stored mummified livers, entrails and lungs—and just how important those bits and pieces were for the afterlife;
· Find out about New Guinea’s headhunters, and see the hooks they hung their enemies’ skulls on;
· Learn why African power figures are stuck full of nails;
· Meet the Met’s only painting with two castrati; and
· Discover if the cradle that rocks itself will rock for you!
Once you’ve completed this tour, you’ll see the Met as more than just a house of art—it’s also a giant cemetery, a cabinet of curios and a map to the less-explored recesses of the human mind. And you’ll realize that in addition to celebrating beauty, art also explores anxiety, death, violence and our darkest fears. Book your trip into the human psyche today!
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Anonymous Painting 1850s
This anonymous painting of the 1850s portrays a family group in considerable detail. It is almost certainly American, though it is unclear why Lismore Castle in Ireland is visible through the window: perhaps the family are Irish immigrants? What is clear is that this is an example of a 19th century American genre, the mourning picture. The parents’ black clothing, along with some other details, such as the mother’s brooch, decorated with the mythological figure of Orpheus the lute-player—principally known for his voyage to the underworld—indicate that they are in mourning for the baby, who though represented in the painting as alive, was in fact dead.
Agiba (skull hook)
This agiba (skull hook) comes from the Kerewa people of Papua New Guinea and dates from the 19th or early 20th century. It originally hung, along with a clan’s collection of skulls, along the wall in the tribe’s men’s lodge. This wing of the Met contains many works related to head-hunting—as is appropriate, given that the wing was donated in memory of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s son Michael, who most likely died at the hands of cannibal headhunters in New Guinea in 1961.
Ancient Greek Jug Decoration, Scylla
Scylla is one of the ancient Greeks’ many female monsters. She appears in the Odyssey, as a pair with Charybdis. They are on either side of a narrow straight (often identified with the straight of Messina, between Italy and Sicily) waiting for passing ships: Scylla reaches down from above on one side to kill sailors, while Charybdis on the other side sucks them under. Scylla represents male fears of the females she is a beautiful maiden above the waist, but below the waist she consists of a pack of hounds, and serpents. As here, she often appears on water jugs, waiting to catch you if you want some water….