The Museum kicks off the holiday celebrations this month with seasonal programs and activities, as well as special offerings in the galleries, restaurants, and shops. Our traditional Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche—a favorite among visitors—returns on November 25. When you visit the Museum this month, be sure to visit the critically praised special exhibition "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions". This stunning presentation—organized by the Museum's Forum of Curators, Conservators, and Scientists—features transformative works of art from the permanent collection and highlights the Museum's commitment to acquiring masterpieces, which was furthered during Philippe de Montebello's thirty-one-year tenure as director.
See the calendar to find out what's happening at the Museum on a particular day.
Above: Charles Parsons (American, 1821–1910). Central Park, Winter: The Skating Pond (detail), 1862. Lithograph. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Adele S. Colgate, 1962 (63.550.266). See the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History to learn more about this work of art.
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Through February 16, 2009
This exhibition explores the various exceptional objects created in the Italian Renaissance to celebrate love and marriage. The approximately 150 objects, which date from about 1400 to the mid-sixteenth century, range from exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as gifts to couples to marriage portraits and paintings that extol sensual love and fecundity, such as the Metropolitan’s Venus and Cupid by the great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto. The exhibition also includes some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects.
Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millenium
Through March 15, 2009
This exhibition focuses on the extraordinary art created as a result of a sophisticated network of interaction that developed among kings, diplomats, merchants, and others in the Near East during the second millennium B.C. Approximately 350 objects of the highest artistry from royal palaces, temples, and tombs—as well as from a unique shipwreck—provide the visitor with an overview of artistic exchange and international connections throughout the period. Learn more about a special two-day symposium being held in conjunction with this exhibition.
The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions
Through February 1, 2009
To celebrate Philippe de Montebello’s years as director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum’s Forum of Curators, Conservators, and Scientists has organized an exhibition of approximately three hundred works of art—from a total of more than eighty-four thousand—that were acquired during his tenure. For the first time ever, the Museum has published an online catalogue to accompany the exhibition.
Early Buddhist Manuscript Painting: The Palm-Leaf Tradition
Through March 22, 2009
Thirty palm-leaf folios from the Museum's rare holdings of eastern Indian and Nepalese illuminated palm-leaf manuscripts, book-covers, initiation cards, thankas, and sculptures are currently on view, including some of the earliest surviving Indian illuminated manuscripts dating from the tenth to the thirteenth century.
The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End
Through March 22, 2009
This installation features acquisitions made during the past sixteen years (1992–2007), many on view at the Museum for the first time.
Special exhibitions are free with admission. See all current exhibitions.
Beginning November 25, the Museum's annual Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque crèche display will once again be on view in the Medieval Sculpture Hall. The brightly lit, twenty-foot blue spruce—decorated with a collection of eighteenth-century Neapolitan angels and cherubs and a baroque crèche at its base—will be set in front of the eighteenth-century Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid.
Dramatic tree-lighting ceremonies will take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays at 4:30 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays at 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 p.m.
The installation is made possible by The Loretta Hines Howard Trust.
Image: Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Loretta Hines Howard.
For many, this is the time of year to give thanks—and to show appreciation to others. The Museum relies on the generosity of friends and supporters like you to meet the enormous cost of year-round programs and services. Have you considered including the Museum in your gift-giving plans this season? A gift of any amount helps sustain us in our mission to provide access to the arts to all visitors. A Museum Membership also makes a wonderful gift for a friend or loved one this holiday season.
Visit Ways to Give for more information about donating online, tax-deductible gifts, and other ways to support the Met.
The Cloisters Museum and Gardens—the Metropolitan Museum's branch in Northern Manhattan dedicated to medieval art—will celebrate the holiday season with special decorations, including wreaths and garlands that are hand made from plants linked to the celebration of Christmastide in the Middle Ages. Special events and programs are also scheduled for the holiday season. See the calendar for information about programs on a particular day.
Image: The Adoration of the Shepherds, 14th century. Bartolo di Fredi (Italian [Sienese], active 1353, died 1410). Tempera on poplar, gilding. The Cloister Collection, 1925 (25.120.288).
Members Double Discount Days are on now! Members save 20% on Met Store purchases (in stores and online) November 11 through November 24. See Special Offers for Members for details. If you are not yet a Museum Member, you may purchase a Membership online.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been engaged in the sale of art reproductions and publications since its founding in 1870. Your purchase supports the educational mission of the Museum by widening public awareness of art and contributing to basic operating expenses. Remember: A gift from the Met is a gift to the Met.
Each week, the Museum offers hundreds of events and programs that are free with Museum admission—including lectures, films, tours, family activities, and more. The following featured events are just a few of the free programs scheduled for November. See the calendar to plan your next visit.
Gallery Talk
The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End
Thursday, November 20, 11:00 a.m.
Galleries for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, First Floor
In conjunction with the special exhibition of the same name, this Gallery Talk by curator Alisa LaGamma examines the stunningly diverse classical textile genres created by artists in West Africa. Learn more about the exhibition.
Film
Voyage from Antiquity
Thursday, November 20, 2:00 p.m.
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education
Shown in conjunction with the special exhibition "Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.," this 1986 film directed by Robert Dalva chronicles the excavation off the coast of Turkey of the Bronze Age shipwreck Uluburun (57 min.).
See the calendar to see more events listed by date.
Above: Bruce Davidson (American, born 1933). [Gallery Talk, Metropolitan Museum of Art], 1968. Gelatin silver print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of the Hundredth Anniversary Committee, 1974 (1974.513.38). © Bruce Davidson, Magnum Photos. See the Collection Database to learn more about this artwork.
Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914–1939
Through December 7, 2008
This is the first major exhibition in the United States to examine the impact of Futurism and Cubism on British modernist printmaking from the beginning of World War I to the beginning of World War II. Featuring the work of fourteen artists, it showcases selective works inspired by Vorticism, the first radically modern, inherently abstract British art movement of the twentieth century. Learn more about this exhibition.
Giorgio Morandi, 1890–1964
Through December 14, 2008
This is the first comprehensive survey in this country of the career of Giorgio Morandi, one of the greatest twentieth-century masters of still-life and landscape painting in the tradition of Chardin and Cézanne. Learn more about this exhibition.
Special exhibitions are free with admission. See all current exhibitions.
College Group at The Met
The College Group at the Met (CGM) is a group of twenty local college students who plan and produce events and programs for other students. The CGM's mission is to enhance Museum programming with regard to local college students, to connect campus communities with the Museum, and to increase student engagement at the Museum. Through programming, the CGM creates opportunities for all students—from all backgrounds and academic majors—to encounter and explore the Met's collection in new ways.
See College Group at The Met for more information.
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Image: Joseph H. Davis (1811–1865). Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Otis and Child (detail), 1834. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1972 (1972.263.6). See the Collection Database to learn more about this work of art.